Silent Lies
by Nadal10sfan
Summary: A lot of things can happen in high school, like hurting your elbow-normal-, like being captain of the tennis team-exceptional, but still relatively normal-, like meeting an agent in training who happens to be running from the government-?- TezukaxOC
1. And the pieces fall

****IMPORTANT** I proofread this (finally) haha, I'm so bad about that. One of my friends finally convinced me too. I just hate reading my own writing, because I hate to see all my mistakes. But I finally brought myself to do it. Oh, and btw that does NOT mean that you have to read it again if you already have. I only proofread it for mistakes, I have not changed the story (that's revision for those of you who don't know). **

**Disclaimer: I do not own POT or marijuana HAHAHA okay….maybe I'm the only one who found that funny….**

Germany. Tezuka sat on his bed, flipping through pamphlets that displayed medical facilities with pithy mottoes emblazoned on the front. He assumed that they were to entice him to that particular rehab center. It wasn't exactly working. So far, all he was enticed to use was the trashcan.

"Be at peace as we piece you back together." –Alrik Center of Rehabilitation (Sweden)

He rolled his eyes. He didn't need stitches. It's not like his arm fell off or anything.

*Crumple* and the pamphlet fell into the waste-basket.

"Our guest services are better than you could have guessed!" –Antoine Treatment and Care Facility (France)

Another eye roll. As if he was interested in guest services. He was there to get healed and fast. Being pampered made his eyebrow twitch just at the thought of if.

*Crumple* and the second pamphlet went to join the first.

"Come experience relaxation so great you'll be in exaltation!" –St. Catherine's Hospital (England)

Once again, he was definitely not going anywhere to relax...or exalt...

*Crumple* and the pamphlet found itself lying next to the other two.

"We treat you with a treat." –Providence Health and Physical Therapy Center (America)

Okay now that one just made no sense. He stared at it quizzically before discarding the pamphlet.

Breathing deeply, he sighed and closed his eyes. Subconsciously, his right arm reached for his left elbow, causing him to wince.

Looking down, he gazed over the last pamphlet.

He was a senior in high school and the tennis season had not even begun. However, that did not stop THE Tezuka Kunimitsu from practicing, religiously even. It was his guilty pleasure. Taking out his frustrations and anger on that little, yellow, fuzzy, ball whenever the problems of life brought the sudden and violent urge to smack someone. Lately, he had had a lot of pent up anxiousness as he thought ahead towards his future. Mainly, it was a battle with himself as to whether he ought to go pro or stick to the academic path. He inwardly groaned just revisiting he dilemma in his head. But now due to his brashness he was stuck in a different albeit just as frustrating, dilemma.

Flashback

_Atobe smirked down triumphantly at a very different Tezuka than when the match had started. He was doubled over in pain, holding what remained of his overly strained elbow._

_"Game, set, match Hyotei's Atobe 7 games to 6." shouted the umpire._

_He had lost, and it didn't help that he had destroyed himself in doing it. The pillar of Seigaku had crumbled. Morale fell and it was written on the horror-stricken faces of his teammates. But everything was blurred through the haze the pain cast over his eyes._

Skip to Germany

_"There you go! All healed up. You should be fine to play tennis now as long as you're careful. Tezuka-san? That is very important. It's healed but it will never be 100% so don't push yourself, thinking that it is." stated the doctor adamantly._

_Tezuka had nodded solemnly, keeping the face of one who was never surprised, while inwardly he was wondering what this warning would mean for himself, as a tennis player. And considering that tennis dominated his life, it would mean a lot for him as a person as well._

_He expected much of himself, never accepting less than everything he did. As a leader and tennis captain he didn't participate in the fun the other regulars often did when they fooled around. It wasn't that he didn't want to. But who could respect a leader who acted less mature then those he had been entrusted to lead? And in academics he had to work hard for his parents. This outlook created the phrase that defined him and was often uttered by the famous captain "never let your guard down." What would this do to him? Holding back. At he time he had decided in the end, not to disobey the doctor outright. He would take breaks...occasionally._

End flashback

This decision actually ended up so that he took breaks around...

Once since he had gotten back from Germany and that was only because an uncharacteristic snowstorm had hit Japan, making it near impossible to play. After 3 years his elbow had finally given in again. All the anxiety he let out in intense beat-the-crap-out-of-the-ball sessions probably didn't help with that either. As he laid his head back, he began to think about the doctor's warning again.

_This can't keep happening. Am I really going to have to hold back? Does that mean I should not try? Maybe it means I should forget tennis. If I can't give everything I have, why try when I can only give some of myself? Who will I be then?_

He, once again, glanced down at the pile of pamphlets, seriously studying the top one. Well, he was going to find out. In Germany.

* * *

Ryoma Echizen was cleaning. His face, stuck in a scowl since that morning, glared openly at the dust bunnies gathering underneath his bed.

_This is pointless. It will just become dirty again._ He thought as he began to dust.

Karupin sat faithfully beside him as he fumed, twitching his tail in what appeared to be both amusement and annoyance. He playfully pawed at Ryoma in the hopes that he would hurry up with his cleaning to play with him.

Ryoma shot the cat an annoyed look "I would play with you but Oyaji won the last match we played and this was the deal." Ryoma shot a dirty glance at his father who was lying on his side reading the "newspaper".

"Baka." muttered Ryoma under his breath.

Karupin who cared nothing for Ryoma's explanation, and was anxious for him to hurry up already, stood up on his haunches and batted Ryoma harder. This time on the shoulder.

"Mreow reow!"

"Ow! Karupin!" Ryoma's arm swung up as he tried to avoid Karupin's insistent paws turned claws. As he did, he knocked into a bookshelf that wobbled a little before releasing a book to the demands of gravity. It landed on Ryoma's head with an "Oomph" and a cloud of dust.

The "Oomph!" originated from Ryoma, while the book spread a thin coat of dust over Ryoma's hair.

The scowl on Ryoma's face deepened as he glanced back at Karupin, who had sat back down and quickly donned a particularly innocent looking expression.

Ryoma, however, was not fooled.

"Now look what you've done! I'm going to have to clean up all those dust bunnies and this new layer of dust!"

Nanako, hearing the commotion, called as she walked over "Ryo-chan? Everything okay?"

He flinched at the mention of the pet name the female members of his house insisted on calling him "I'm fine!" he shouted back to Nanako only to be interrupted by a screech and an "Uncle!" Ryoma turned to see Nanako stalking away with the magazines and a begging Nanjiroh crawling after her.

Karupin, unfazed, trotted off towards where Nanjiroh was lounging once again looking boredly at an actual newspaper. With Karupin readily reprimanded, Ryoma turned his attention to the book that had fallen beside him. He picked it up with a quizzical expression as he brushed off the remaining dust. It was a photo album with a picture of Ryoma, Ryoga, and a little girl who looked a lot like Ryoma. He sighed opening the book and his expression changed from the deep scowl he had donned that morning to a softer expression with a hint of a smile on the corners of his lips and sadness in his eyes.

The album was filled with pictures of the three Echizen children, of Ryoga his impish, exchange-student-turned-pro, older brother, Ryoma (as if he needs explaining), and Azumi his twin sister. He had only known her for a short time. That was one of his biggest regrets. She had left at the age of 1 when the test that all babies were required to take in Japan went off the charts. Not that Ryoma was a slouch by any means. He had surpassed the average by just as much, they were twins after all. But, his parents couldn't bear to part with them both and he was the boy. The obvious choice to hold on to. Call the Echizens sexist and old-fashioned but Nanjiroh had dreams for Ryoma, a son to carry on the legend of Samurai Nanjiroh, tennis player extraordinaire.

Azumi on the other hand, was immediately shipped off to a boarding school by the government. Well, officially it was a boarding school. Azumi had not told Ryoma what it really was, but he did know from her that it was hard, cold, and full of government agencies. He didn't like it; her being there. It was one of the reasons he harbored resentment for his Oyaji. Damn old man.

Now, he had even greater reason to suspect the school. Azumi had always been allowed to visit a few times a year until last January. This last year, her visits had abruptly stopped. No e-mails, no phone calls. Not even a text message. It had been a hard year for Ryoma and as he gazed into the photographs he couldn't help but wonder what he had already contemplated hundreds of times before: _where was Azumi?_

* * *

The car careened around the corner, threatening to fly over the sidewalk as the two inside wheels flew up, nearly tipping the car over onto its roof. As the car regained its momentum lost cornering around the curve, two more cars shot around the corner in hot pursuit. One car took the inside of the corner, pushing the other car to the outside. Both took the turn a little bit too fast and the inside car skidded into the other, forcing it off he road into the side of a building.

Azumi checked her rearview mirror and noticed the one car's absence and the broken window it had made when it had crashed. She took another series of quick turns, which led her to a large castle on the edge of a wood which bordered a cliff. She hurriedly pulled the seat all the way forward and smashed the window with a sai. She took one of the bigger pieces of glass and jammed it between the seat and gas pedal. The glass pierced through the seat and pedal, securing the pedal at full tilt. She then aimed the car towards the cliff and jumped out the broken window into the forest that edged the cliff, breaking her fall with a neatly timed roll. With any luck, the car behind her would either presume her dead, or realize the path of the car too late and plummet over themselves. The first alternative was preferred but she wasn't about to get picky. Regardless, the car which had been following at a good fifty feet behind her, followed the car up until 25 feet from the cliff. Azumi watched intently as she saw the faces of the poor occupants of the car zoom by her hiding place. She tensed. Maybe she was a little pickier then she was willing to admit.

The car screeched to a halt, spinning so that the back end faced the cliff. It ground to a stop with the two back tires teetering over the edge. The front wheels spun on the road, whining as the rubber was worn away. Finally, the wheels caught on the road and the car slowly edged back onto the road before speeding away in the direction that it had come. Azumi felt a pang of relief as she let out the breath that had been gathering pressure inside of her lungs from the pent up air.

With that, she stood up and strode towards the castle trying desperately not to think about the people in the car that had just tried to kill her. And the very same people she wished nothing more than to be with.

**So if you still found some mistakes, you can slap me or send me a review (the latter is MUCH preferred haha). Otherwise, tell me how it was! **


	2. Casting lots

**Hey all! I'm trying not to reveal too much, but if you're MAJORLY confused then let me know. Sorry that I'm concentrating a lot on Azumi, it'll get better, promise! Still building up the background.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own POT and i'll bet you guys are glad of that or else all the drawings would be more stick-figure-ish haha**

(Azumi POV)

I shifted by backpack and didn't meet any immediate pain.

Good sign. I decided.

Just to be sure I did a quick once-over of myself making sure that everything was intact as I walked into the immense castle.

Check, check, and check. Aside form a few minor cuts and bruises and oh...crap. I glanced down at my hands.

A large slash was evident on every one of my fingers, probably from when I jammed the piece of glass in between the seat and gas pedal. Normally I would have marveled at the intricately woven tapestries, the high vaulted gothic ceilings, and illuminated stained glass windows that marked the high craftsmanship of German castles. But, I was on the run, not to mention injured.

I smiled wryly at the irony. From an agent trained to hunt, to the scared prey straining to survive.

I walked briskly through the halls in search of a certain room near to the heart of the castle. My feet made no noise as I swiftly made my way to a small black door nearly imperceptible from the bleak stonewall. I opened the door praying the door was unlocked and had been oiled recently. It proved to be locked, just as I had suspected, however an examination of the hinges revealed a thin layer of oil. One for two; guess you can't win them all. I slipped two bobby pins out of my hair allowing my long black hair to fall down my back. I fiddled with the lock for a grand total of 3 seconds before the lock clicked, causing the door to swing open. Hey, I'm good okay? But it took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get there. And I do mean blood, sweat, and tears literally. Normally I could pick a lock in a much shorter time but he blood on my fingers and pain in my hands prevented me from moving my fingers with their normal dexterity.

Probably going to need stitches. I cursed under my breath. Not that there was anyone to hear me...

When I entered, I quickly stitched up my left hand with some supplies from my backpack and then glared at it.

I knew this would happen. You're so useless_._ I scolded my still stinging hand.

My left hand was quite unable to stitch anything as I was right-handed. Not only that but I had just applied stitches to it causing it to be in more pain and reducing the flexibility of the fingers. Ripping open stitches was neither a pleasant or desirable experience and i had no intention of trying to move my left hand all that much. My right hand as it stood now was still slashed open and hot blood ran from the wound.

_C_rud. I'm going to have to go to a place where I can get this stitched up.

I began to think._ Not a hospital. Too many questions and especially not undercover. They'll keep a record of my visit. Hmm perhaps a specialty hospital. Out of the way. Just a place with doctors. I'll figure it out later. _

I produced a bandage from my bag and wrapped it tightly around my right hand. I wiggled it experimentally which resulted in a sharp pain that lanced up my arm.

Oh well, I'd had worse.

I surveyed the room, searching. And I was not to be disappointed. It was a D-room. Fully stocked. Finally, some luck. This was always my favorite part of missions, picking the new Echizen Azumi. What would it be? Purple hair? Red eyes? And any name I chose as well. Now you're probably wondering 'where the crap did this room spring up from?' well the school/Japanese security agent training facility I attended was able to use the resources of all the Japanese security branches. And Japan had some kickass resources, like the D-rooms for example. There was one in a 10-mile radius of where ever an agent is in a city or relatively populated area. Sweet right? Agents would use them on the run from other governments or the the organizations they were trying to take down. Just run in and presto chango! No one bothered you anymore. The room could even create fake IDs, passports, visas, everything. Basically when an agent was in a bind, they ran to the nearest one. I was in a bind. And I was going to use the D-room against them.

I tried on wig after wig.

I liked to make celebrity comparisons as I rummaged through the pile.

Too much like little orphan Annie, ugh Hermoine hair, hmm nice! Maybe too green though, don't want to be the incredible hulk.

I ended up surrounded by a pile of wigs and an exasperated expression on my face. They all looked really wrong. Not natural. I then spied a brown short-haired wig. I placed it on my head and after some adjusting, tucking of my cumbersome tresses, and fluffing I examined the finished product in the mirror.

Perfect! I liked the doe brown. The cut was a bit too short for my liking though. It made me look too much like a boy.

I began to take the wig off when I had a sudden thought and spun around to look around at my reflection in the mirror

Light bulb moment! I grabbed a wrap, some baggy clothes, and miscellaneous hair stick-ons. In a flurry I put on the ill fitting clothes, placed the little hairpieces around my nicely tweezed eyebrows to make them look more...not tweezed I guess. The remaining hair went to my underdeveloped sideburns. I'll let you guess what the wrap was for. I once again took a good look in the mirror.

Wow, that's awesome! Man these clothes are comfortable. Why don't girls wear these more? Boys are SO lucky. Hmm everything looks about right. Except for...

I turned my attention to another shelf with rows of contacts and color names under them.

I'm thinkin'...blue, or no, too noticeable. I'd stand out too much. Maybe a good normal brown…but I'm not really sure their opaque enough to cover up my eyes. If you mix green and brown what do you get? Ph yeah...puke brown. Hmm this is a toughie.

I looked back in the mirror, at the young boy with bright, jade green eyes.

My team will be looking for that, that is, if they even know I'm alive.

I closed my eyes, letting the wrenching feeling in my chest pass before it reached my heart, threatening to tear it apart. I grabbed my chest trying to keep the pieces together.

Flashback

I walked down the long hall to the "principal's" office, with consternation building within me. I heard my own footsteps echo off the walls in the clean white hall, completely devoid of any ornamentation that might add friendliness to the otherwise bland hall. The fading echoes emphasized how much I was alone, and in trouble no doubt.

Psychological terrorization. Typical. I'm SO scared.

Sarcasm often helped me to free some room for thinking room in an otherwise terror clouded mind. It seemed to be working as I was beginning to fell much more annoyed than afraid. Just in time too, I had reached the secretary's desk.

She glanced up with annoyance to match my own from her seat behind her desk.

"The principal will see you now." She said to me in a nasally, offended tone. It was as though she had a cat allergy and was talking to me as though I was the offending feline party.

I was about to make a snide remark when I saw her begin to shift herself into a more comfortable position and I noticed the imprint of a gun holster beneath her suit jacket. I closed my mouth and settled for a glare instead as I strode past her into the office. I wasn't surprised. Knowing the nature of the school I attended, it was a given that all of the faculty were agents just as the students were training to be. I heard that the janitor was a retired judo sensei, quite a good one too. That little tidbit made me think twice before sticking gum under any of the desks.

In the principal's office I was bidden to sit down which I stiffly obeyed, never taking my eyes off of the "principal" as he deigned to call himself.

"Your team, Azumi, is the highest in the class. Perhaps one even of its own." a tall, dark, and altogether impressive figure noted without much enthusiasm.

Normally I would have felt pride swell in my chest and did a little mental victory dance, but my relationship with the school administration had turned into a hate-hate relationship. They had presented a test I could not afford to pass. I tuned back into what he was saying.

"Consequently, I want to start streamlining it. We must eliminate the weakest link in the team. That is your assignment. You are dismissed."

The commanding voice was reinforced by just as a commanding face; black, short, crew haircut that reminded one of the military, small charcoal black eyes, and a build that rivaled a tank.

However, this did not faze me. Big deal. He was big and bad but not much of a wolf. I inwardly chuckled to myself. Okay so sometimes I was an ADD pun-lover but these little things helped me to stay relaxed and focused, just like my dry sarcasm. And I needed all the focus I could muster at the moment. I was adamant in my defiance and I made sure he could tell from the look in my eyes.

"Yada." I continued to glare fiercely back at the daunting figure. "I will not murder any of those who have served me and you well. What have they done worthy of death?" I emphasized certain words to let him know that I understood exactly what he meant, and phrased my words so he knew the despicable, morally corrupt, sick, sorry-excuse-for-a-principal I thought he was.

He seemed to be neither surprised nor amused by my response. His face remained commanding and authoritative, a stoic unreadable mask.

"I thought as much." he said and began to examine a coin that sat upon his desk. "You know, Azumi. There are a lot of definitions of weakness. Not being strong enough, not having enough courage, not being smart enough," he paused in his examination of the coin, closing his fingers around it. The next words came loaded with as many hidden implications and accusations that mine had.

"Too much emotional attachment…to anything." He then looked at me sternly, as though he could see through me; I suppressed a shiver.

"You are dismissed." he said, once again distracted by the coin as I turned and walked out the door of the office of my "headmaster".

So be it. So he thinks I'm the weakest. I don't care what that sick b****** thinks anyway.

I glanced back from the doorway, and saw a smile upon his features. I call it a smile but it carried in it things no smile should ever convey, sinister, terrible things. He them looked at me, tauntingly and still smiling. He slowly opened his fingers as if to show me something. There in his hand was the coin, crushed to near dust.

I turned away slowly, trying to make sense of his expression. He obviously was planning something. Something not so hot for me. I thought over his words again.

"We must eliminate the weakest link in the team…there are a lot of definitions of weakness too much emotional attachment…to anything."

Oh no…

I had figured it out.

He's going to kill me. But how?

At that moment, from outside the room I heard him summoning Nishimura Takeo, my closest friend and teammate…my second in command. I closed my eyes, and concentrated, furrowing my brow while I strengthened my resolve. I turned, grim determination etched in my face.

And that's when I ran.

End flashback

I never thought my team would ever turn on me. And as much as it hurt having them hunt me down like a wild animal, I knew that the principal was training them to be emotionless killers, destroying their compassion, ability to trust, and friendships. Having their humanity stripped from them. That's what hurt the most.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Regular POV)

Tezuka was sitting on his bed as his anxious mother flitted about his room, examining his packing job. He was working pretty hard to keep his expression impassive as annoyance dominated him. He was 17 for crying out loud, he didn't need help picking out his clothes. Now most people would disagree with Tezuka on that just because they had never seen him wear regular clothes other than that long purple button-down which looked nice, but does he seriously having nothing other than tennis clothes? Tezuka's mom seemed to be having the same thought.

"Kunimitsu," she said with an exasperated sigh "don't you have anything other than tennis clothes?"

"Hai." he said as he lifted the purple shirt from the suitcase.

His mother sighed again and shook her head as she continued to flit about the room. Tezuka let her do it. He knew that she was just trying to be a mom. It really seemed to hurt her when he appeared compotent without her, especially now that he was nearly heading off to college.

Two days until Germany. Maybe I'll get. Some peace and quiet there. Alchim Rehabilitation Center was nice when I went there last year. I look forward to it. He tried to convince himself.

How oh so wrong he was, he'd soon find out.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Azumi POV)

I, now all boy-ified, continued to stare at the rows of contacts.

I'm just going to have to go with blue I think.

I reached over to the cases and unscrewed each lid before popping a blue disk into each eye. I blinked a couple of times before checking myself once again in the mirror.

Sweet! I was good to go.

I grabbed her backpack and emptied all of it except her first aid kit. I then grabbed some men's clothes, boxes of extra contacts, false documents made out to a 17-year old (fudging ages was fun too and quite practical as well) male named Jukodo Ryuu, and extra little hair stick-ons. I zipped the backpack back up, not bothering to clean up my mess. I left the room having spent only 15 minutes in the room. Whether my team checked the D-room or not, if they knew I was alive, they'd know that my first action would be to use one. Most renegade agents did and with good reason. You'd think that they finally would have put in cameras, or heavier locks that they hadn't taught students to crack.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Regular POV)

Nishimura Takeo was driving in a red, rather conspicuous sports car with a group of teens his same age.

"Yes, her car went over the side of the cliff." pause.

"Affirmative." another pause.

"No we did not check the car." an angry voice could be heard from the small transmitter in Nishimura's ear.

"But sir-" he was cut off by more angry outbursts from the earpiece.

"Yes sir."

His next words were addressed to the passengers of the car.

"We have to go back and...check." he said wincing, spitting out the past word as though it disgusted him, which wasn't far from the truth. Not that he'd admit it though.

The passengers nodded their heads in acknowledgment, none wanting to point out the elephant in the car. The problem none of them wanted to address. No one wanted to see if their former friend, and team leader was dead. To see her body laying in the ruins of the car would make their already tentative decision to obey their headmaster over Azumi harder to justify.

Nishimura did a quick U-turn and headed back in the direction of the accident. Silent, uncomfortable tension reigned in the car with only the near imperceptible purr of the engine cutting through the silence.

They came to the spot of the crash a half hour later. No one on the car moved. They all sat stone still, none daring to get out, stealing glances at each other. Nishimura sighed, knowing that they were all waiting for him to make the first move. He was the new team leader after all, it was his duty. Steeling his nerves, he got out of the car. No one followed. He continued nevertheless towards the edge of the cliff.

"Well? Aren't you coming?" Nishimura demanded from the edge of the cliff. He wanted to sound like he was trying to make his team do their job but really he was scared to go down the cliff side and face whatever lay or didn't lay in the car...alone.

The passengers of the car seemed to feel the same way and exchanged glances before vigorously shaking their heads back and forth.

Nishimura glared back at them. This wouldn't have happened under Azumi. She always knew what to do.

What would she do in this situation? He pondered.

He then snapped his head around, angry but he wasn't quite sure with whom. He had just stupidly remembered that she _was_ in this situation, only she wasn't the one on a cliff top deciding whether to brand her memory with her heinous acts or not.

He turned back to look at his team in the car, "Cowards" he muttered under his breath. He then began his descent down the cliff face.

(Meanwhile in the car)

"Well?" Mochizuki Arata asked, breaking the silence.

"Well what?" Koga Nabuko said, crossing her arms.

"Isn't anyone going to follow Nishimura-senpai?" Mochizuki explained.

"Why don't _you _if you're going to lecture the rest of us about it." Tokaji Hotaka huffed.

That shut Mochizuki up. Everyone shifted uncomfortably. They were all thinking that this was _so_ wrong, but no one wanted to admit it. Mochizuki, however, being a bit more brash finally voiced the concern. This caused more shifting from the other team members. Finally Koga spoke up.

"Echizen betrayed us." Koga tried to state mattor-of-factly, but her face betrayed the uncertainty she really felt.

"She killed Ieyasu-chan." Tokaji said trying to sound irritated at such a trivial question. He succeeded.

"But we don't really know that." Koga jumped in.

"The headmaster said so." Tokaji said even more irritatedly. "Are you questioning the headmaster's word?"

Koga, annoyed at being threatened by a 2nd year retorted, "Do you mistrust Echizen so much? I'm just saying that we don't actually know. During that training session we were ahead of them so much we didn't see what actually went down when she went back for him."

Tokaji stuck up his nose, "We're not supposed to go back for team mates. She shouldn't have gone back to help him anyways."

"He was really hurt though…" she argued though she accepted Tokaji's words. Then her eyes glinted as she glared at Tokaji. "How are you so insensitive?"

"Sensitive? Since when does that have to do with anything? Is that what we're really arguing about?"

"Yes! We are being trained to protect those that can't be protected. Going back for your teammate is exactly that. It's part of being human."

"If human means being weak and weepy all the time, I don't want anything to do with it."

"I'll say, you sure don't look like one…"

"Hey! Let's find out what Asai-san thinks!" Mochizuki quickly intervened before the two could get violent.

"As if. Asai-san never says much of anything…" Tokaji growled even more disgruntled than before.

"Now that's not fair Tokaji." Said Koga.

Mochizuki placed himself between them frantically waving his arms, trying to keep them from fighting when he suddenly spotted Nishimura's head appear over the cliff top.

"Hey look! Nishimura's coming back!"

That abruptly stopped all the fighting in the car as everyone froze and watched as Nishimura walked towards them. The walk to the car seemed to take an eternity. Finally he opened up the driver's side and sat down. He didn't look too happy. No one wanted to ask but they were all dying to know. Mochizuki was about to ask when he accessed the voice activation feature on the car's computer. Being agents and all, it was pretty standard issue.

"Access castle D-room camera, Germany 1 hour ago." Nishimura commanded.

On the GPS system they all saw Azumi enter, and about 4 jaws dropped. Nishimura however, hit the steering wheel.

"We're not done here yet."

**So there you go! Hope you liked it! And I also hope you're not too confused haha. Please leave a review about how you're liking or disliking it so far!**


	3. Hedging losses

**Quick update, no? I'm still focusing on Azumi a lot but hopefully you like her by now, or at least are willing to give her a chance. Thank you to AkimotoAyumu and Jelotto who reviewed :) It motivates me to write. Also, I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! We almost blew each other up by setting one off two mortars at once...hehe don't try it. **

**BTW if you don't like it please review anyway and let me know what to improve on. Thanks! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters, stories blah, blah, blah, blah. **

(Azumi POV)

After leaving the castle I began down the cliff path towards a city that lay in the valley. I had on my disguise and was trying to get in character as I descended down the cliff side.

"Hello, my name is," I then cleared my throat and deepened my voice ", Jukodo Ryuu."

Wow, I sounded silly. I was definitely going to have to work on my man voice, or I suppose that I could claim to be pre-pubescant...

While I pondered this problem, I repeated the name I had chosen for myself over....and over....and over...and over again to myself. It wouldn't be very good for me if I didn't respond to my own name.

And now for my second favorite part of missions, coming up with a good back story. I could make myself anyone I wanted to be. It's funny how that works, people are always looking to be anyone but themselves. A blank slate is a beautiful thing. Maybe it's because you don't have to carry all your own emotional baggage wherever you go. Maybe its because we, as human beings have a terrible propensity for envy. Or maybe its just because we buy into the lies we tell ourselves. Sometimes the ones that we are never actually told aloud are the most dangerous, the ones that we assume about ourselves. The silent lies.

I wanted to be satisfied in who I was. I guess that's what actually drove me to run away in the first place from Imei High. I wanted to be able to live with my actions instead of being the leader of...the _top_ team...in the _most_ _prestigious_...government academy in..._all_ of Japan...Wow, that sounds a _whole_ lot more attractive than running around in a sweaty, itchy wig making up stories about myself right about now. Why was I doing this again?

Oh yeah cause the school administration decided to murder my friend Tsuneo as a test. Oh, and then threatened to murder me after I tried to save his life.

I was so lost in thought that by the time I looked around, I found myself at the end of the cliff path in front of a tall hedge. On the other side I could hear the sound of tennis balls being hit and people walking around.

It looked pretty promising. Maybe I could ask for directions to the nearest, I don't know...pet hospital or something. Hey, vets know how to stitch dogs up, why not me? Ignoring the obvious fact that I wasn't a dog. Although, I didn't relish the thought of picking unknown pet hair out of the wound on my hand...blech.

I walked along the outskirts of the hedge, looking for an entrance and came around to the front of the hedge perimeter.

"Alchim Rehabilitation Center." I read out loud.

Sweet! My luck was practically providential. This was the perfect place to find someone to stitch up my hand. Slip in, pretend to be a patient for about 5 minutes and slip out. If this went smoothly I could be in a different country by this afternoon, and farther from my team who would search all of Germany when they found out I was indeed _not_ dead.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Regular POV)

Nishimura, Koga, Tokaji, Mochizuki, and Asai drove in silence back to their base at a hotel about an hour away from the castle. There seemed to be quite a bit of silence between the team members lately. Things weren't the same after Azumi left. The fact that they were hunting her down didn't help with the awkward silences either. Add the tension created by the seething disagreements between them and this is what you get: long, quiet, awkward car rides.

They arrived at the hotel in a good bit less than an hour due to Nishimura's ability to break the speed limit without breaking their necks. An important skill they all agreed. Especially the _not_ breaking necks part. He pulled into a parking space and slid out of the car. This time, everyone followed him to get out.

"Grab everything. We're going to set up a new base at the castle D-room. You have 5 minutes." Nishimura ordered.

Nods of acknowledgment were given and then the anxious teens hurried up to their rooms to pack.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

Dr. Anton Peters was checking his clipboard as he walked towards the entrance of the rehabilitation center. He was so absorbed in checking patient charts and logs that he almost didn't notice the young boy standing in the entrance. Dr. Peters knew all the patients quite well and was sure that he had never seen this boy before.

He must be lost. He concluded.

"Can I help you?" Dr. Peters asked.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

The D-room was full of equipment. Earpieces, various watches each with a different capability whether it be a laser, a bomb, or a grappling hook, trackers, listening bugs, and 4 teens organizing and unpacking more gear. The fifth teen was glued to the computer monitor trying and evidently failing at something as the angry line of his brow kept growing with every keystroke.

Eventually Mochizuki noticed as the angry aura coming from Nishimura began to flame larger.

"Oi, Nishimura-senpai what are you trying to do over there?"

Nishimura didn't seem to hear him as he continued to tap away angrily at the keyboard. Mochizuki, rather put out at being ignored, stopped his unpacking and stomped over to the Nishimura.

"Hello-o!" Mochizuki said in a sing-song tone, one of Nishimura's pet peeves, as he waved a hand in front of his face. "Anybody home?"

Nishimura, equally put out at being interrupted, gave Mochizuki a look that could make flowers wilt. Mochizuki, however, didn't even bat an eyelash. Partially because he didn't really have eyelashes and partially because he'd faced _much_ scarier things than Nishimura's glare, as deadly as it was.

"Great! I've got your attention. Now what are you trying to do?" Mochizuki inquired, still ignoring the glare that threatened to bore a hole through his skull.

Nishimura was distracted from his attempt to melt Mochizuki with his eyes, and turned back to the computer he had been attempting to destroy with his frustrated aura. Needless to say, Nishimura was _not_ a fuzzy, lovable type of person.

"I can access the cameras to the D-room when Echizen enters, but they blank out for some reason after that. So we don't actually know what her disguise is. Not only that but she completely erased the computer's files on false documents. Not only can we not access the files about what SHE printed out but the computer couldn't even manufacture a passport for Barney!" Nishimura's voice had grown louder and more violent as he progressed until he was standing up and delivering the computer his signature glare.

The computer in response, shut off.

"WHAT?!?!!? WHAT JUST HAPPENED YOU WORTHLESS HUNK OF JUNK!?!?!" Nishimura demanded with widened eyes as he began to kick the computer.

"Oops hehe...my bad." confessed Koga sheepishly. She looked guilty enough to have robbed a bank, probably because she was sure that Nishimura was going to make her punishment SO much worse than that of a bank robber.

She had placed the ear pieces onto the computer processor and one had fallen into the fan, resulting in a smoking computer and a jigsaw puzzle of an ear piece.

Nishimura looked about ready to explode as his hair began to flame, and his eyes were replaced with balls of fire. Metaphorically speaking of course.

"W-w-well, I only did it because of Tokaji wouldn't move HIS stuff to the floor." Koga accused, shooting a meaningful look at Tokaji.

"Me!?! You're the one who kept flicking darts at me."

"Because you wouldn't move your stuff!"

"That's becaus-"

"SHUT UP!" Nishimura cried, freezing the bickering immediately. "Just fix it...NOW!"

Koga and Tokaji slowly moved towards the processor muttering insults at each other under their breath.

Nishimura just shook his head.

_This is all Azumi's fault._

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Azumi POV)

I was standing in the entrance to the rehabilitation center, rethinking my original plan. Sure there was less of a crowd here but the patients had been here for longer. Surely the doctors would not mistake me for another as they might do in a hospital.

I was about to leave when I heard a voice from one of the hallways that led into the lobby.

"Can I help you?" asked a man around his late 30s, medium build, and judging from his lab coat, a doctor. From what I could tell, he wouldn't be a threat if he turned out to be an agent for the government. Call me paranoid but I'd rather have my neck than a warm fuzzy friendship with everyone I came in contact with.

I turned towards him, quickly trying to come up with an answer because "Well I'm on the run for my life from a secret government school that you've never heard of. So I'm posing as a 17 year old boy when I'm an almost 16 year old girl WITH SERIOUS ISSUES WITH A CERTAIN CREW CUT, NEUROTIC, EGOTISTICAL, COLD, MURDERER OF A PRINCIPAL!" just didn't sound all that believable. The easiest answer would be that I was lost, and then I could ask him if he could stitch up my hand out of the goodness of his heart for this poor wayward soul as I laid on the guilt with some puppy-dog eyes action.

It was at that moment though that he noticed my bandaged right hand.

"Do you mind if I have a look at that?" he asked looking concerned.

I was torn between running away right that second like everything in me was screaming to do or waiting to see how it played out. Maybe I wouldn't even have to put on the sad puppy act and he would just fix me up out of concern! My sense of laziness and curiosity won out as I gave a curt nod.

He moved toward me and I held out my hand for him. So much for my paranoia. If I was wrong about him than I would be a sitting duck in this position. Thankfully, he merely gently unwrapped my hand and a small gasp escaped his lips. I had to admit it _did_ look pretty bad.

"How did that happen?" his brow furrowed. Great. Now he was suspicious.

I didn't say anything. I was partially nervous about how my German was and partially worried about how much he may be able to tell from the type of wound. It looked a little like I had been in a knife fight, or a blade of some sort from such a clean cut.

"Let's see about taking care of that." he said as he ushered me into the hallway and into a small room that looked as though it was used for physicals. _Bad_ memories. It took everything I had not to bolt or go ninja on the doctor, though I did allow my arms to move closer to my backpack where I kept my trusty sais. I had to keep reminding myself that this was going better than according to plan, sure he was suspicious but I didn't care as long as he stitched me up.

He then motioned for me to hold out my hands, which I did.

"No, no just the right one." he said amusedly as he went to lower my left arm, but he took a glance at me hand first.

The furrow in his brow returned as he studied my left hand.

Crud.

How would I explain that? Because, even a story I made up wouldn't sound all that believable. "Um, yeah, the doctor can only stitch left hands because he only has a left eye." Yeah, believable. I hadn't even had time to come up with a good backstory! I was going to have to improvise.

"Who did the stitching on your left hand? It looks professional." he commented.

That's when I had another lightbulb moment. There had been an application for interns sitting on the front desk of the receptionist in the entryway. That's all I needed.

"Um...yeah. I did it. I'm here to apply for an internship." I said flatly. That sounded to be as good a backstory as any. Maybe not all that exciting but at least I had something to work off of now.

"Really? From the look of this work I'd say you could apply to be a therapist. They don't start teaching how to stitch up people until the last few years of med school." he pointed out, with more awe than skepticism. Drat. There were already holes in my story, but on the bright side he seemed to understand my German easily enough, plus he was totally buying my man voice. Language studies were my strong suit at Imei. I was fluent in over 6 languages and had pretty much finished college in every imaginable field. How, you may ask? Try taking away summers of blissful freedom, starting school at age 2 instead of 5, and having your school days end at 7:00pm. Not only that but the there was no room for slacking. Imagine that all your classmates were hand selected from all the brightest minds in the country. Yeah, it was _that_ bad. The only breaks I got were short weekends twice a year with my family. So if you envy me...don't.

Back to lying my tail off to save it. Hmm...how to get out of this one.

"I've already finished up my MD but I haven't gone into the field of therapy. I thought it smarter to apply as an intern and sort of learn the ropes first." I internally winced. "Learn the ropes?" What kind of respectable doctor used such an awful cliche as "learn the ropes"? Did that even MEAN the same thing in German?

He didn't seem to notice.

"Excuse me for saying so but you don't look old enough to have an MD."

I'm guessing that he didn't notice because he was too busy being skeptical, which was good. I had printed out every document I would need as Jukodo Ryuu...ever. I had graduated from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Dartmouth in several different majors, doctorates, and PhDs according to the diplomas I printed out. And diplomas didn't lie. Or at least that's what I wanted HIM to think.

I laughed lightly ,er, chuckled deeply at his comment, just as I was sure Jukodo Ryuu would do. Guys don't do the whole polite, little tea party laugh. Of course neither did I. I hadn't been very girly to begin with, so this whole boy thing might have been easier than I had first thought.

"I get that a lot." I replied with the chuckle still playing a smile on my lips. "But I brought all the paperwork with me and am ready to prove it practically as well."

Hmm...maybe all that school wasn't that bad. It made lying so much easier.

The doctor nodded his head approvingly though he looked as though he was still trying to reconcile my age and claims in his head. He seemed to just shove it to the back of his mind though as he FINALLY stitched up my hand.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

I was sitting in an office that was completely devoid of any personal objects other than a stapler, a hole puncher, and a cup full of pens that I was sure didn't work. The only other thing in the room was a carefully framed Harvard diploma hanging on the wall made out to Jukodo Ryuu...MD.

Somehow, my lies had brought me to this office...now MY office, a therapist at a world class German rehabilitation center. They were in desperate need of translators and as I happened to be both multilingual and an MD, I was accepted before I could practically open my mouth.

I could have declined the offer of therapist, I could have bolted just to get away, but I couldn't draw that much attention to myself. Dr. Peters was sure to remember me enough if I did run away or decline the very job I was seeking (supposedly) that if anyone came looking for me, he would point them in the right direction. I couldn't risk that, so I just followed wherever my backstory took me. _Now _if anyone was looking for me he wouldn't tell them of any strange teenager who was edgy and bolted at the first sign of trouble..._after_ telling him that they had the education of a 30 year old graduate student. Instead, I was going to actually _be _here like a-a um…really…vulnerable thing? If my team found me. But, I had a pretty sweet disguise. So for now I thought it was best to just go along with my cover. At least that's what I told my screaming muscles that all had one idea: RUN FOR YOUR FREAKIN' LIFE! My mind had already devised 47 routes of escape in case of fire, invasion, or attack by plane, helicopter, hummer, or tank in the day and a half that I had spent applying for the job. And all while I was trying to show Dr. Peters what a great therapist I was.

I was screwed.

My new plan was to hang out for a week or two which was doable as Dr. Peters had already allowed me to take a room in the patient wing. But it was still dangerous enough for me to decide to jump the gun under some excuse of having gotten a better job somewhere, or being kidnapped by aliens, or _anything _that got me away from the very place that my team would be looking for me.

I sighed looking down at my patient charts and was surprised to see only one name on my list of patients: Tezuka Kunimitsu.

**Well there you go! Hope you liked it! Please review!**


	4. False encounter

**Hey all! Sorry that I haven't updated in a week and a half, but I was helping out with VBS at our church and all those kids REALLY drain your energy. If you had to watch 360 kids, you'd be too tired to hit a few measly keyboard keys too. Plus, I got a job! Teaching tennis lessons of course hehe. Okay enough of my personal life, here's the story.**

**Disclaimer: Forgot to add this, had to go back and do so...anyways....don't own Prince of Tennis**

(Normal POV)

Tezuka was standing on the sidewalk right outside the baggage claim of the International German airport under an awning that offered a little reprieve from the pouring rain. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to be trying to find a reprieve as well. He had taken a red eye flight, one of the most popular times for international flights, and the little space underneath the awning was beginning to get crowded. A woman carrying a baby while also trying to haul three or four rather large suitcases was coming towards him, most likely trying to seek refuge from the torrent of water. Being the gentleman he was, he walked out from under the awning over to the struggling woman. He wordlessly lifted her suitcases with ease, being careful not to use his left arm, and moved to bring them to his previous spot under the awning. The lady, distraught at first believing that Tezuka was a suitcase snatcher, found herself instead, no longer being rained on and still in possession of all her suitcases.

"Thank you...um..." she started.

"Kunimitsu Tezuka" He replied, careful to switch the order that he was so used to in Japan.

"Kunimitsu" she smiled gratefully at him.

He gave his signature, curt nod in reply.

Tezuka then took a look around only to realize that there was no more room under the awning. So he stood in the rain, waiting for the Alchim Rehabilitation Center to pick him up as the water continued to pour down.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Azumi POV)

I paced the hall nervously, waiting for my first and only patient to arrive.

You see, therapists normally care for 10 or so patients when the care needed is long-term therapeutic type care. So, being assigned only one patient, I could only think of three reasons for such an occurrence, either this guy was: in need of enough care to revive someone form the dead (something I very much hoped not to have to do), was incredibly important and if I screwed up it would be like killing the prime minister of Japan, or the staff at the center thought me to be completely incompetent and could only handle one person at a time. None of those reasons sounded all that appealing to me.

And that was why I was practically wearing a hole in the ground all the way to America in my fervent pacing. Not only this, but he was also the same age as me which, practically speaking, might have made my interaction with him a bit awkward. I mean I knew that I would have problems respecting an authority figure that was my same age.

As I said before, I was _so_ screwed.

Maybe I could have employed one of my various escape routes. From this point in the building I could either grab the loose floor tile in front of room A450 and throw it ninja-star-boomerang-style into the side of the building from the window which would give me a sturdy enough foothold to leap out the window land in parkour roll and run like heck, or...take the stairs. I know a toughie right? Well, I never got to try either because the second I was about to bolt, the elevator door opened, and I first laid eyes on Tezuka Kunimitsu.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Regular POV)

The processor was smoking..._still_. Nishimura, was also letting out some steam as he sat stewing, a similar substance to what the computer was exuding, streaming out his ears. Asai had been the only one to be working on the computer and was scurrying around, trying to salvage it while a heated argument had been raging between Koga, Tokaji, and Mochizuki about everything from the broken processor to who's turn it was to get food. The normal feeling of order and strict obedience had left with Azumi. And Nishimura, as angry as he was could not find it in himself to blame anyone but himself for the current lack of order...and Azumi.

It had already been two days since the computer crash and with Asai working by himself, things did not seem to be improving all that quickly.

Nishimura let out yet another frustrated groan.

_She could be all the way to America by now!_

He then looked up to see that no one but Asai was in the room. His eyebrows knit together in a look of confused frustration.

_Fine time to take a bathroom break. Well, at least now I can enjoy some peace and quiet away from the arguing trio._

(meanwhile in another room of the castle)

"So, how do you think it's going? Think they suspect?"

"Are you kidding? Have you _heard_ the groans coming from Nishimura? He seriously, probably thinks we're all incompetent idiots by now. We can stall for probably, at _least_ another day."

"Okay, but do you think that's enough time...for her to get far enough away I mean."

"Come on, it's Azumi. She's probably disappeared for good by now. We won't come close to finding her."

He regretted it almost as soon as he said it. They both looked down at the ground between their feet, not quite sure if it was good or not that they would never find her. Whether they would never be able to see her again. And ultimately, never able know what they were doing was right.

"Come on, let's go." he said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "Tokaji should be done with his bathroom break by now and we've got to catch him before he starts to help Asai fix the processor."

"Okay, but let's try to argue about something _other_ than food. I'm getting hungry."

He smiled "Okay. Lady's first, albeit fat ones." His smile turned into a smirk, as he held the door open, motioning with his hand.

She responded by trying to punch him in the stomach and a harsh scowl as she walked past. He just ducked behind the door and chuckled.

Then Koga and Mochizuki walked back to the D-room.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

(Azumi POV)

Tezuka stood in the elevator, soaked with an impartial look of stoicism on his face.

I stood outside the elevator, assessing him. It was made rather easy by the transparency of his clothes due to their wetness. Not that I was a pervert or anything, just stating the facts. I was used to buff guys anyways. You couldn't go to Imei high and survive without a substantial amount of muscle mass.

He was about...4 inches taller than me at around 5'11" I'd have to say. Everything about him was angular from his jaw, to the muscles on his arms. Speaking of which, he was quite muscular, I assumed that that was from tennis and hopefully not from the fact that he was an expert in judo or something out to kill me. He could be trouble if he ever decided to turn on me. But I couldn't jump to conclusions, so for the time being I was going to go for kind, professional, _not_-a-spy-on-the-run-who-is-tad-overly-paranoid, therapist, so I quickly collected myself and proceeded to introduced myself, plastering a genial smile on my face.

"Hello Tezuka. I am Jukodo Ryuu. I will be your therapist during your stay here at Alchim."

He nodded curtly in acknowledgement.

Nice to meet you too. I thought wryly to myself.

He picked up his bags and walked out of the elevator as I began to show him to his room. As we walked, I made an attempt to be friendly and tried to strike up some small talk. For those of you who have any idea who Tezuka is out there you know that this was a _bad_ plan, to put it mildly. But hey I had _no_ idea just yet.

"So did you enjoy your trip?"

"Hn..." No change in expression.

Drat, I would just have to try harder.

"So, where are you from?"

"Japan."

Oh, now that was interesting. We were both native Japanese! Maybe we would get along after all. It would also explain why he was not talking much. He probably didn't know too much German. Maybe he wasn't a stiff, poker-faced, stick in the mud! I switched to Japanese.

"Oh, so do you prefer for me to speak in Japanese Tezuka-san?"

I expected him to be slightly surprised at my knowledge of the Japanese language, suffixes, and flawless accent; it was my heart language after all.

He blinked.

Not exactly the response I was gunning for.

"Hai."

_Now _he was starting to bug me. I wasn't exactly an over-talkative person myself (unless you cared to count the conversations in my head in which case I was a motor mouth) and I was way out of my comfort zone trying to get him out of his. Something was wrong with this picture.

There was something about his expression too. Something off. I don't think his expression had wavered once since he had stepped out of the elevator. It was too...inhuman.

Meanwhile, we had reached his room and I was obliged to get rid of him.

"Feel free to rest and tour the facilities. You'll begin the treatment tomorrow." The smile on my face had never faltered, and if I thought he had any emotions, I'd think that he would be a bit freaked out by now.

He opened the door, walked in, turned to face me, and offered an "Arigatou Jukodo-san."

I froze.

I _knew_ that face.

My smile broke.

I couldn't shake the resemblance, the similarities, even the feeling of revulsion rising in the pit of my stomach. It's not that he _looked _anything like the headmaster, it was the emotionless mask he was wearing.

When I looked at the face of my new patient, all I could see was _his_ face. The face that killed my friend, the face that never showed anything but grim precision, and unfeeling vindictive power, the face that I hated above all else. Tezuka's stoic face evoked all the anger that had been transformed for the past two days into fear. Now, instead of coming up with escape routes, all my thought processes were being used to come up with as many ways as possible to wipe that abominable expression off his face that I hated _so_ much...and I didn't even know him.

I realized that my face had quickly changed first from shock, to confusion, to anger, and then finally to my own stoic expression that I used as my poker face when my emotions became the most tumultuous. However, I was pretty sure that my eyes were blazing with the loathing I truly felt for this man's face. For the face that it reminded me of was the headmaster of Imei high school.

I searched Tezuka again, waiting for a change of emotion, a reaction to my shock, confusion, and disgust. I expected him to at least show a slight tip of the head in puzzlement or a crease between the eyebrows.

He hadn't even noticed.

My anger rose, carefully concealed beneath my impassive face.

Poker faces were dangerous by nature. The only reason one needed to have a poker face was to hide something. Obviously it originated from hiding one's hand in a card game, but in my world it was used to hide the intentions of dishonest and quite dangerous individuals. The harder they were to read, the harder they were to guard against. I was definitely going to have to keep my guard against this Tezuka.

He walked into his room, the door closing soundly behind him.

**So, tell me what you think, and how you do that is to...(drum roll)...REVIEW! That's right folks step right up, it's right there, just a click away. Thanks for reading!**


	5. The jagged melody of a soul

**Hello! I hope you all have been having a great summer! Here is the next part of the story. It's going pretty slowly actually. Not the writing part but the timeline. I was expecting for it to go faster but seriously its been like 5 chapters and only 2-3 days. Drat, I'm the author and I don't even know. That's not a good sign...read anyway! **

**AkimotoAyumu: Good question, but somewhere (I don't remember where but I DID write it...I think) it says that she's almost 16. Under her FALSE identity of "Jukodo Ryuu" she's a 17 year old. She had to create an identity old enough for her to get a job, though I'm sure since she's a girl she looks a lot like a 14 year old boy. But licenses don't lie, at least she's hoping that no one thinks they do.**

**Stelra Etnae: You didn't really have a question but I just wanted to say thanks for the review! Oh wait...you did have a question but if I answered it there would be no point in reading anymore of the story.**

**Jelotto: Hey I have a job too! And I don't get to sleep into the mid-afternoon, so don't even start. At least I HAVE a personal life :P haha. Yeah, as far as insults that's all I got. Oh, and what's with the s;e;m;i;c;o;l;o;n;s;?**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Prince of Tennis**

(Regular POV)

Tezuka quickly changed out of his wet clothes in the hopes that pneumonia or any disease of that sort either took a long time to set in or made exceptions for those who got wet in the act of doing good. He hung the wet, dripping clothes in front of the window letting the evening sun that streamed through the bleak clouds, dry them.

Glancing around the room, he decided to unpack after a warm and hopefully, therapeutic shower. Up until this point he had had a game plan as to what he was going to do just by following the natural consequences of events. It went like this: he played tennis - he injured his arm - he had to get it healed - he went to Germany to get it healed - ?.

He stepped into the shower letting hot water run over him where the cold clothes had clung. Closing his eyes, as he often did when he was thinking, his mind began to wander to the matter that had so agonized him not two days before.

Soon, however, the intense debate that had been taking place in his mind was interrupted by a splitting headache originating most likely from said debate. With a sigh, he shut the water off, his plan to allow the water to calm his mind being a complete and utter failure. Instead, he changed into comfortable clothes, tennis clothes (of course), and after unpacking, decided to reacquaint himself with the facility.

He considered asking his therapist, Jukodo, for a tour, something that the therapist probably should have offered to do anyway, but for some reason Jukodo had put a large wall between himself and Tezuka. While Jukodo had appeared to be amiable, he had the feeling that Jukodo had been evaluating him, and did not like what he had found.

Another thing that disconcerted Tezuka about Jukodo were his eyes. Tezuka, believed that the eyes were the window to the soul. Even in the sternest poker face, the eyes could still contain a person's thoughts, fears, and feelings. When Tezuka looked at Jukodo's eyes, something seemed...off, wrong. Like the wall Jukodo had put up extended beyond his false cheer and kind words. But they also bugged him because they reminded him of...something...or someone perhaps. Either way, he couldn't quite put his finger on it. They were almost...catlike? He didn't quite know really.

Contrary to popular belief, Tezuka was actually _very_ sensitive to other people's emotions, and feelings. It's what allowed him to be a good captain, and also what made him seem like an emotionless stiff. Because he knew emotions quite well and was constantly alert to them, he knew that he never wanted to hurt anyone. He could see the pain and understood its depths. Knowing he had caused pain to anyone made him hurt. Physically, and badly. So, he treated everyone exactly the same. How could you possibly do that? Treat your mother as your worst enemy as your closest friend. Tezuka had found the solution, never show emotion to _anyone_.

So, all in all, Tezuka decided that it was not a wise idea to spend quality time with his therapist. He opened the door to his room and began walking down the hall, opposite the elevators he had just come

from. He read the door signs as he went along, keeping a mental note of each, just in case he was ever called upon for some reason or other to find something contained in one of the rooms. He took his catch phrase (Never let your guard down) quite seriously. What a boy scout.

After some time of wandering the floors, he heard singing, soft and lilting, lingering in the air a bit longer than you'd think notes should. The music was melancholy and filled the air, making it hard to find the source of the noise. Tezuka, drawn to the sound tried quite unsuccessfully to find the source anyways. It was like trying to follow the scent of freshly baked cookies, the singing was nice enough to listen to from a distance but it constantly reminded him of what he was missing out on, and if he didn't hurry he just might miss the girl, for now he was sure that the singer was a female. Then a particularly sweet note rang out, and the singing stopped.

Tezuka looked around to find himself in the garden. He hadn't really been paying attention to where he had been going, being so entranced by the song. He hadn't found anyone and for all he knew he hadn't even been close. It left him feeling a bit melancholy, though whether it was because of the sad draw of the music or his tendency to despair into his troubles as of late, he didn't know. Distraught, he began to instead wander around the garden as night began to settle in the sky, replacing the day's blue and white heavens to a dark velvet blue, interrupted by pinpricks of glittering light. Gazing into the night, he felt a little peace come down on him like the starlight that bathed the garden in blue. He began to stroll through the flowers, a rare thing for the tennis captain. Strolling was not exactly conducive to...well anything. Other than personal pleasure. Thus Tezuka didn't indulge himself to anything of the sort, but the garden, swathed in the moonlight seemed to warrant some of his leisure time.

As he continued to explore the garden, he came around a hedge to see a person, standing and admiring a bleeding heart. For a moment he almost asked if they had been the singer he had heard before, but he stepped on a twig, causing the figure to turn, revealing the face of none other than his therapist, Jukodo.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

(A few hours ago)

I had to relax. Relax enough to think straight, rationally. Relax enough _not_ to smash my first and only client's face into the nearest hard and preferably pointy object. Because doing so would probably not fit somewhere under thinking rationally. I had to keep my cover. It was as simple as that. Somehow, my mind refused to believe it to be that simple, and insisted he was of the same vein of cretins as my heinous ex-headmaster.

Finally, after laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to clear my head by picking out shapes in the patterns that marked the ceiling, I decided to try and walk off my frustration. Normally, I would spar, or practice with my sais, but considering that I was supposed to be a medical child-prodigy turned mild-mannered therapist, I thought it might be a bit too suspicious.

As I reached the door, I opened it slowly, peeking around the door, making sure that no one was in the hallway.

As cruel, cruel fate would have it, Tezuka's room was located directly across the hallway from mine. It made sense. He was my only patient. I was rooming here unlike most of the other therapists, and we were both...boys...no wonder I couldn't think rationally. I was already clinically insane for trying to pull my cover off.

I was safe, I could hear the shower going in his room. I began to meander through the halls, always aware of the closest exits and the myriad of ways to get there. I was too tense...and insane. Not a good combo, so I decided to take my walk outside, where it was more open and I could relax a bit more. Outside, I passed the tennis courts. Growing a bit nostalgic, I watched for a while as the two players carried on an intense battle under the court lights.

Amatuers. My brother would kill them easy and I'm sure he'd improved since the last time I saw him. My heart grew a little heavier in my chest. I knew that I couldn't go back to Japan. That would be the easiest road for me and my team knew it. I could have food, shelter, and lodging without calling attention or distraction, I would know the language, and finally be reunited with my family. The stitches that kept my heart together tightened. I continued to walk past the tennis courts, refusing to watch anymore. I raised my chin in defiance against the emotions I was feeling.

Keep the head up, and your stance proud, I told myself.

My walk brought me away from the tennis courts until I could no longer hear the sound of the balls striking the racquets. As I walked, the scenery around me changed from open pathways to a large flower garden surrounded by a hedge.

If there was a place to relax, this most certainly was the place. I began to allow myself to let my guard down, if only a little, letting my mind revel in the beauty of the moonlit garden. As I passed by the flowers, I began to hum.

Music, in my mind made everything better. It soothed, it allowed emotions to be channeled with no bad consequences, it moved the heart and soul to higher places. Then, I saw a bush of bleeding hearts, my favorite flower, perhaps because they so aptly embodied my own heart, but also because they were unique, and quite rare. Not that they were hard to grow, they were merely unpopular. The only reason that I knew about them was that there had been one growing in the yard back at the Echizen house. I remembered because Ryoma and I would guard them from Karupin, making it a game we could play for hours. I shook my head, trying to clear it. I had too many taboo subjects. Every thought brought me to the past, and the past brought me memories, fresh in my mind along with the painful emotions that accompanied the memories. All happy times with my family and my team, bittersweet, tainted by the knowledge that there would never be times with them again. Sometimes I wondered why I cared, but then I would remember that it was the only thing that separated spies like me from spies like my headmaster. His memory brought quite a different emotion with it.

My humming slowly began to evolve into a song, bittersweet, and sad like my thoughts. I wanted to cry, I wanted to be angry about all the things that had happened to me, I was so full of confused emotion that I had wanted to hurt a stranger I realized. Something needed to change. And so I let it out. All the sadness, the regret, the shame in a song that I wove them into. And then when I felt my emotions drained, I stopped, letting the last few notes hang in the air, until the crisp night air swallowed them up just like the cares that I had poured into them.

My heart felt lighter. I fingered the bleeding heart that I had just picked, and a crooked smile crept onto my face. Relief began to fill me.

Until I heard a branch snap behind me. I spun around, letting the bleeding heart fall from my hand.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Jukodo-sensei. I'm sorry to have disturbed you." He said, gave a little bow and turned to leave.

I was a bit shocked, and had been staring at him with my mouth parted slightly. He looked...different in the moonlight. I realized that aside from being extraordinarily muscular, he was quite handsome. So much for smashing his face. It would be such a waste.

Then I realized the absolute lunacy of my train of thought. Wow I hated being female sometimes. I quickly recovered and with my resolve made anew, I called out, "Tezuka-san, wait."

He turned towards me.

"Gomenasai I never offered you a tour around this place." I said gesturing towards the campus of the rehab center, "It's a little late, allow me to at least walk you to your room."

I was going to give him a second go (and no it did NOT have anything to do with my realization that he was attractive…relatively). I wasn't too sure of him still and erred on the side of wariness but I was able to put more real enthusiasm and cheer into my voice and smile.

He nodded, and I walked over to his side, feeling significantly shorter considering we were supposed to be the same age, leaving the moon and bleeding hearts behind.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Koga and Mochizuki were sulking, inwardly of course. On the outside, nothing was amiss. They had failed to reach Tokaji before he had started working on the computer. Then Nishimura had spotted them idling and ordered them to help fix the computer as well which they begrudgingly did.

Tokaji, and Nishimura were visibly excited and Asai was...well impartial and silent as usual.

The computer was back up and Nishimura was gleefully tapping away on it once more, trying to recover any data that would lead them to Echizen.

_Tap tap tap_

"I think I've got it."

_Tap tap tap_

"Yes! Here it is."

A few more clicks and a picture filled the screen. The picture was of the room that the D-room, empty.

Nishimura smiled triumphantly, "And...here we go."

He clicked the play button and they saw the door open slowly. Azumi entered and began to go through the piles of wigs.

Mochizuki, cringed. _Oh no. Azumi's cover is going to get blown. I have to do something._

He closed his eyes in concentration, and then an idea came to him. It was a longshot but he had to try _some_thing.

"Um...guys, why doesn't Koga just watch this?" He said.

"Why?" Tokaji demanded in his usual irritated tone.

"There might be some...undressing." He muttered, growing quieter and redder towards the end.

An awkward silence filled the D-room. No one even dared to breathe. Mochizuki used the distraction to give a meaningful glance at Koga who at his statement, had been looking at him like he was some foreign and undesirable bug. However, Koga understood and gave the slightest of nods back to Mochizuki, but continued to stare at him detestably so no one would be able to tell any communication had occurred between them.

"..." Nishimura, though flustered, managed to remain calm...at least on the outside. "We have to all watch it. 10 eyes are better than two and all that. It's a matter of the gravest importance that we all watch everything Azu-...the target did so we know what to watch out for."

He said it confidently, but he really had no desire to strip Mochizuki's innocence from him. Heck, he was feeling a little queasiness inside too. But if they were truly going to be professional about this, it had to be done.

They all turned their attention back to the video, two of them rather reluctantly.

Thankfully, she was still trying on wigs.

Koga chuckled. It was just like Azumi to take forever on the wigs, it was her favorite part of every mission.

Then, Azumi turned and looked as though something had caught her eye. She reached out her hand and...the video went to static, as all hell broke loose in the D-room.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

"So, Tezuka-san, where in Japan are you from?"

I wasn't going to force a reaction this time, but I still would like one. First, I had to learn some stuff about him and then maybe he would open up a bit. And I WOULD get him to open up, I promised myself.

"Tokyo. I attend Oshiro High there."

My eyes widened for half a second, before I caught myself and made my face neutral again. I seemed to be failing miserably at eliciting a reaction from Tezuka, but he seemed to have no problem getting emotion out of me. He had startled me out of my mask not just once but 3 times in one day. Which was not an easy task even for the members of my team. I was pretty sure from his demeanor that he was not the type to notice others' feelings all that often.

Oshiro High...wasn't that where Ryoma attended? And wasn't Tezuka the captain of the tennis team? Maybe he knew Ryoma!

"Oshiro High, huh? So you're captain of the tennis team, right?"

"Hai."

"How's the team looking this year?"

Boy did that work. I should have brought up tennis before. I don't think I had heard him say ten words yet but at the mention of the tennis team, he became downright chatty.

"We have a strong team this year. Our regulars are improving and they were already formidable. Momoshiro Takeshi, one of the 2nd-years has a jack-knife that he has extended from just his backhand to be off both wings, though he still tends to guard his right leg. Inui Sadaharu, a 3rd-year is able to not only formulate data but also estimate the growth and evolution of a player _during_ a match. Eiji Kikumaru and Oishi Shuichiro are able to go into synchro just by exchanging glances. Eiji is also to duplicate himself, making it seem as though there are three people on the court. Kaidoh Kaoru is able to snake off of both wings. Fujiko Syuusuke has improved exponentially as well, rivaled only by Echizen and myself."

It was a good thing that I was an Echizen. Knowing all those tennis terms were necessary in my family, especially since playing tennis was one of the primary activities that filled my time with Ryoma. He enjoyed it, so why not?

But all that was unimportant. All that mattered was the last sentence he had uttered....'rivaled only by Echizen and myself'.

Echizen...

"Do you play tennis?" he inquired, breaking into my reveling at the newest revelation.

"A little." I answered honestly. As I said, I was an Echizen, it was _required_, a given. But considering I was home once every blue moon, I was hardly that good.

He nodded as if reassuring me that it was okay and nothing to be ashamed of.

We walked in companionable silence back to his room. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts about his team and I, in those of my brother.

When we came to our rooms, I cut into the silence first.

"Good night Tezuka-san. Our first appointment will be tomorrow at 9am. Then we'll see what we can do about that elbow." I ended with some genuine warmth, not that I thought he could tell the difference. But it surprised me.

"Hn. Good night Jukodo-sen-" He sneezed cutting off the suffix of my name. It didn't bother though, I didn't deserve it anyway.

"Bless you. Or gesundheit rather." I corrected, using a little German that I was sure he knew.

"Ah." He sneezed again and as he opened the door to go into his room, I spotted the still dripping clothes hanging in front of his window.

Crud. I'll bet he had pneumonia or something.

"Tezuka-san? Are you feeling okay?" Once again I surprised myself with the genuineness of my concern.

"Ah."

I refused to believe him as he broke into a sneezing fit. I reached my hand up to feel his forehead.

It was burning up. I pulled my hand away quickly and it tingled as I it left his skin. Now that was odd. I didn't pay it much mind however as I was pretty sure that getting Tezuka to admit he was sick was going to be quite an ordeal.

"You're very warm. You should probably lay down."

If you can imagine someone looking cross while not changing their facial expression at all, then you understand the glance I got for even suggesting he give himself a break.

"Arigatou for your concern Jukodo-san, but I am fine."

He turned as though that settled things, and strode forward into his room as I opened my mouth to protest. But I never did, because then, Tezuka fainted.

**Well there you go! I hope you enjoyed it. Please Review!**


	6. Love befriends Hatred

**Okay, okay, I haven't written for about a month and i am REALLY REALLY sorry. Summer suddenly just seemed to pick up and I didn't really have time, that and I also could have taken this story in SO many different directions from here and being indecisive to almost the point of being impaired, I stalled a long time, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I'll try to update sooner, I promise! Because...*drum roll* i got a laptop and can FINALLY ditch typing on that little iPod touch, not that I don't love it. I love my lappie just as much *hugs computer* okay maybe not that much but I did pay for it myself so i'm allowed to be a little obsessive right? Just nod, It'll make me feel better. Also I made this chapter extra long, well okay only like 500 words longer, but I tried right? Okay, I'll really shut up now. Enjoy!**

**Oh, and as further penance, I've been working up some character sketches that I'll have up on my profile pretty soon, okay so maybe it's just Azumi so far, but I'm working on the rest of them. i've never really drawn anime before so it's slow going but I think they should give you an idea of what they look like.**

**.miss: Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you're having a good laugh reading it :)**

**AkimotoAyumu: Oh thank you for pointing that out! I'll have to go back and change it (but considering how long it took me to upload this don't hold your breath for any time soon hehe). I saw that in a lot of other stories so I thought that Fuji might just be a shortened nickname. Thank you for the clarification, it is much appreciated :)**

**Stelra Etnae: I'm glad you like the flow. I'll try to keep it moving.**

**Disclaimer: - you'd think that that would be rather self-explanatory, but i just to be safe, i don't own prince of tennis**

(Azumi POV)

I stared enviously down at Tezuka, sleeping peacefully in his bed. Sure he had a fever of 104 and a case of pneumonia but he sure looked more rested than I felt right then. It was not an unusual feeling for me, I had gone through rather intensive (and unpleasant) training that made staying up for around 55 hours a relative breeze but I had not slept in more than 96. I had been on the run for a day in which I ruined a car, got my new disguise and found this rehab center. The next day was spent in evaluations where I got this ludicrous and, at this moment, rather unwanted job. Then Tezuka had come and had had enough common courtesy to FAINT ON ME, which resulted in yet another tumultuous night.

Remember when I had listed the reasons that could possibly explain why I was assigned only one patient? I was wondering whether the staff thought me incompetent, he was a superstar, or he needed tons of care because he was coming in a full body cast. Well I found out which it was. Between the ENTIRE staff coming to fuss around him and every possible authority figure in the rehab center coming down to yell at me (for something I could not have prevented and most certainly did not cause), I was pretty sure that Tezuka was a pretty huge deal. And I do mean huge. Like, being one of the best junior tennis players in all of Japan kind of huge. And everyone thought I just nearly killed him.

Great.

My lids felt heavy as I sat down in an unoccupied chair next to Tezuka's bed. An IV was attached in his arm. A heart monitor beeped quietly announcing his relatively good health. Now that he had been diagnosed, everyone realized what a FRIGGIN' OVERREACTION THEY HAD HAD and left me in charge, since he WAS my patient.

I gazed once more at Tezuka as the sun streamed in from the window, illuminating his face. His glasses lay on the bedside table, away from their usual post perched on the bridge of Tezuka's nose. Somehow, he looked less stern with them off, though his stoic facial expression extended even into his sleep.

Tch. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less.

The expression still bothered me, but in quite a different way. As I had talked with him, he hardly seemed dangerous or conniving and definitely not like a shell with an evil, sadistic storm raging on the inside. No, I could rest easy knowing that Tezuka Kunimitsu was not going to knife me in my sleep. However, I now was fairly certain that the origin of his particular lack of emotion lay in arrogant boredom.

That irritated me...a LOT.

My brother, a master of said expression wore it often. Though never much around me. I wasn't around enough for him to dismiss all that often or with any amount of ease. However, it was his default expression in dealing with ANYONE else, and as a rule, I turned a blind eye to it to keep my sanity/keep me from going and giving a big lecture to my brother. Mainly, because it would most likely earn ME one of those stares which would most likely turn into Ryoma being killed in a rather gruesome/extremely unpleasant way.

Tezuka, on the other hand, not being my brother made it so NOT okay to use that expression. ESPECIALLY on me.

Instead I concentrated on the reassuring rising and falling of his chest that proved his relative good health. Laying my head on the side of his bed, still in my chair I fell into a deep (and well-deserved may I add) sleep.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Four figures cowered behind various large (and they hoped flying projectile proof) objects, trying to make themselves invisible presumably from the figure in the middle of the room from which the flying projectiles were coming.

NIshimura had just about had it. If being assigned to a covert and somewhat morally sketchy assignment wasn't enough, he was appointed to the team that was even more reluctant about it than he was which resulted in them all degrading themselves to the obedience level of two year olds and paid him NO mind whatsoever! And if that wasn't enough, between the aforementioned imbeciles incompetency and social maturity of dung beetles a computer glitch had caused him TWO, count 'em, TWO whole days of delay. And then, just when things had begun to run smoothly again, he found that the video had been tampered with. TAMPERED WITH! It made no sense! There wasn't anyone around to do the tampering! Or at least there shouldn't have been...

(Meanwhile, behind a large case of costumes)

"That was a nice move with the video, Koga" Mochizuki whispered above Nishimura's temper tantrum, ", though giving me a heads up would have been nice. Then I wouldn't have had to embarrass myself like that." He turned a little red just remembering what he had forced himself to say.

"I was about to congratulate YOU..." she confessed looking a bit confused, "I haven't done anything to the video."

They both looked at each other, confused and the same question in their minds. _Then who tampered with the video?_

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_(Azumi POV)

I woke to first a soft nudge immediately followed by a loud cracking noise. My eyes were wild as I took a quick and rather frantic stock of my surroundings. Had someone snuck in? I had fallen asleep in Tezuka's room (as wrong as that may sound), that much I remembered. There didn't seem to be anyone around, so the soft nudge must have come from Tezuka stirring. And the crack…I turned doing a double take only to be plagued by a rather acute pain in my back. The crack must have been my spine as I had jumped from the chair into a defensive position.

Ugh, I felt pretty awful.

My eyes were all dry from wearing the blue contacts while I had slept and everything felt stiff from staying up MUCH too long. Then to make matters worse I had fallen asleep slumped over in a chair. Not exactly ideal. The cricks in my neck rivaled that of rusty hinges that had never been graced with oil…ever.

After stretching and moving around a bit, loosening up my tight muscles, I turned my attention back to Tezuka. He was still sleeping, much to my relief. The last thing I wanted him to wonder was how spastic his trainer was. Actually it wasn't the last thing. The last thing I wanted him to wonder was probably whether or not his therapist was actually a cross-dressing spy. Yeah, that was probably number one on that list. But wondering how spastic I was would have to be at LEAST in the top ten I'd have to say.

"Jukodo-san?"

I jumped about ten feet in the air and once again took up a defensive position, facing Tezuka's bed where the voice had come from. As I turned to his bed, I saw his eyes slightly open, squinting. His arm was stretching out from under the covers over to the side table, and was feeling around for his glasses.

Oh, so maybe he was awake. Just resting his eyes or something. I really hoped that he couldn't see…like at all without his glasses or he really was going to think that I was spastic.

I immediately stood up out of my crouch and walked over to the chair by his bed as he put on his glasses.

"Tezuka-san? How are you feeling?" I inquired, trying to portray the quiet confidence that you always seem to get from the doctors when they are trying to get you to calm down.

"Ah, I am feeling fine. Why are you here?"

So much for quiet confidence. He seemed to not to be into the whole politeness thing and cut straight to the chase.

"You fainted when I brought you back to your room last night."

Silence. He seemed to be trying to recall the event. I sure remembered, or at least every person in the whole facility made certain that a big enough deal about it was made, that I wasn't about to forget it any time soon.

"Ah, I remember."

Well I'm so happy for you, what you don't remember is being LAUDED ON FOR AN ENTIRE NIGHT, WHILE I GOT YELLED AT. Not that I was bitter or anything. But I thought he should know all the same. Keeping professionalism in mind though, I guess that it was good that I just thought it.

"After some analysis and some x-rays of your lungs, I'd say that the best diagnosis for the condition that you have is pneumonia. It's an infection in the bronchial tubes. Tezuka-san, you have to know that when there is a lower lung infection, it is pretty serious."

I didn't know how good of bed side manner it was to be this straight with him, but he seemed to be the type who was able to take this sort of thing without melt downs, sobs, or pity parties. Though, I had misjudged his character up until now…

Much to my relief, he simply nodded his head solemnly, just as I had already seen him do several times. His face as usual, remained stoic though his eyes seemed distant.

"Jukodo-san, do you mind if I make a phone call?"

I thought for a moment. I didn't want him to strain his voice, especially since it was probably weak form lack of use anyway. But it also might help his spirits, not that he had much personality to get spirited.

"I don't think that that's such a good idea quite yet." I thought out loud. "You need to rest your voice, though you are welcome to borrow a laptop to write an e-mail if you need to communicate with someone far away."

He nodded again.

"Ah, I would like that."

"Good, I'll go get you one." I said, standing up to leave "If you need anything or start to feel light headed, be sure to call me with this."

I pointed to the button on the side of his heart monitor, before turning and heading towards the door. Just as I was about to walk out the doorway, I heard the same cracked, low voice that had already startled me once that day.

"Jukodo-san?"

I turned.

"Yes?"

"Arigatou."

I smiled, turned, and then continued walking as the door closed behind me. Maybe he was polite after all too.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I soon returned with the laptop and handed it to Tezuka.

"Ah, arigatou." He said as I handed him the laptop.

His movements were slow and shaky. It hurt me a little to watch him struggle. It was almost as though he were crippled, though I suppose he was in a way. Like a bird with a broken wing. So used to being able to fly but now made to struggle to even hobble around on the ground.

I decided to busy myself with other things so that I would not have to watch. I heard the slow tapping of keys on the laptop and the faint beeping of the heart monitor as I checked some readings.

I was just looking over some x-rays when I noticed another abnormality in his bronchial tubes. That couldn't be good.

"Tezuka-san, I'm going to go check some of these charts over with Dr. Peters. So, if anything comes up," I gave him a pointed stare, bordering on glare, as I motioned towards the heart monitor, "the button."

He was most certainly not the type of person to ask for help. That much I could tell from his demonstration last night where he pushed himself until he had fainted and I did NOT want a repeat of that. One scolding per week was more than enough for me.

And maybe…I wanted him to be able to fly again.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Dr. Peters."

He looked up as I shut the door behind me.

"You might want to take a look at these."

I slid the file of new x-rays onto his desk.

He raised an eyebrow but opened the file anyway. As he looked through the pictures, quite a different expression came over his face. And the x-rays dropped to the floor.

I composed my face before stepping into Tezuka's room. He had had enough trauma for one day I decided, so instead I was going to let him recover a bit before I dropped a particularly heavy and traumatic piece of information on him…again.

I opened the door softly, expecting to see him tapping slowly on the computer. Instead, I was greeted by the slow steady pulse of the heart monitor and a light snore.

Haha! So he DID have some human-like qualities.

His face was lit by the soft glow of the computer screen, left open on his lap. I picked up the computer so that it would not fall if he shifted in his sleep. I was about to close it when I noticed that he had not sent the e-mail.

Being a spy and all, I had extensive surveillance experience. There was no such thing as a line of privacy. Unless of course you happened to be another spy, in which case there was no question that was safe to ask. But that's another story.

As an agent on the run, it was my duty to myself to read the e-mail just to be safe that he wasn't contacting anyone to come and kill me. Either that or I was just satisfying my curiosity. But we'll stick with the first one. It allows my conscience to rest easier.

"_Dear Oishi,_

_Don't let your guard down. I trust that everything is in going well in preparation for tennis season. I am sorry that I am not there to be the captain that I should be. I'm afraid that I have not been fair to the team this year; this injury is the result of letting my own guard down. _

_Keep an eye on Ryoma, make sure he shows up on time to practice and be sure to make sure he is always challenged. Keep Momo on court one and Kaidoh on court three. That should make practices run smoother. Maybe another practice match between Ryoma and Fuji would be a good idea too. Say hi to Taka at the sushi shop for me. Take care of yourselves._

_Sincerely,_

_Tezuka"_

I pressed the send button for him and began to tend to Tezuka so that my thoughts could not wander to my brother, though it was nice to know that Tezuka did have a heart. Maybe he had only written about tennis, but I thought that just maybe I could see a little concern show between the lines. At any rate, it was nice to know that he cared about them. Someone had to be around to take care of Ryoma, because my father was certainly not around to.

I sighed and began to once again place my hand over Tezuka's brow.

Even as my hand burned hot, I found myself unwilling to pull my hand away. It lingered there, feeling so strange and yet so natural. My lips began to curl into a small smile. It felt good, right.

And then I caught myself.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. WHAT?!? That made NO sense. I quickly withdrew my hand from its perch on Tezuka's head as though it were going to burn up with his fever. What a strange feeling, it defied the fact that I hated his face, and his attitude, or lack thereof and-and, well everything about him.

I brushed it off as I continued to tend for Tezuka, this time being careful to avoid direct contact with his skin.

I wet a washcloth and placed it on his forehead to try and cool the heat that threatened to burn away the one cell of sentimental feelings he was bound to have, though perhaps not for long. Not that he got much use out of that side of his brain anyways. I quickly took my hand away before the feelings (whatever they were) could come again.

Maybe it was cooties.

I shook my head, chuckling at my own foolishness.

A groan interrupted me as Tezuka rolled over, and his eyes opened slightly.

"E-e-echizen?" He managed in a low, cracked voice.

_$#*?!? _

Um…what exactly did he just call me?

As though answering my question, he reached his hand out toward my face, and muttered "Echizen?"

I froze. All mental processes in my head (the few that had been working anyways) stopped abruptly. Well, actually the side of my head that controlled dirty language seemed to be in better than working order at the moment.

"Wh-what are you doing here?"

Um….

"You look…all wrong. Even your eyes…you eyes are the right shape, but its like there's a film, a block, what is goin–"

He stopped there abruptly.

Maybe it was because I had hit him in the back of the head. Not hard mind you, but I had to stop him. Stop him from making too many connections. I had had no choice. I didn't even hit him too hard. But hopefully, it was hard enough to make him forget what he had almost just figured out when he was drugged enough to say exactly what he was thinking. Perhaps Tezuka wasn't as dense as I thought. 10 minutes ago I would have thought of that as a good thing. But now my guard was going to have to go up around him. He might be dangerous to me after all. Even if he DIDN'T knife me in his sleep. Accidentally blowing my cover around him would be just as bad.

It made me sad.

I was just getting to know him.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Dr. Anton Peters was in his office, shaking his head as he checked over and over a series of papers as he scrawled all over them. He looked a bit more than frantic, and less than hysterical.

_Okay, calm down._

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath pausing his somewhere between hysterical and frantic writing.

_Inhale._

_Exhale._

_Inhale._

_Exhale._

He opened his eyes, calm. For the moment.

He looked back down at the stack of papers in front of him. Sighing, he put down his pen and pushed the intercom button in his office.

"Jukodo-san? Please see me in my office."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

"You're exporting me?" I demanded in maybe not the most polite of tones, but I wanted to shriek it. In other words, self-control-wise I was doing well.

He shook his head.

"Not exporting Jukodo-san. We simply think that Tezuka-san will be treated better in an actual hospital. This," he gestured at the building, "is a physical THERAPY clinic. We're not equipped to deal with…other problems."

I glared at him. Oh, and trust me I am a good glarer. My glares got my point across quickly and efficiently. They sent the perfect message: "Uh…die."

"So what you're really saying is you're scared. That you care no more about Tezuka-san than your flippin' reputation. You don't want the world famous tennis star to die on your hands so you want to MOVE HIM when he's SICK, one of the worst POSSIBLE things you could do, JUST so that you can not have the BLAME ON YOUR OWN WORTHLESS HEADS?!?!?!!"

Okay, so maybe I wasn't doing all that well on the whole self-control thing.

He looked back sheepishly at me.

Good, he should at LEAST be sheepish. I may not have like Tezuka very much, but he was a human being, a life. And not just any life, but a life that happened to be important to my brother, so as far as I was concerned, I could at least make this man feel guilty about endangering it.

"Now Jukodo-san, I know that this is not a good move. But it's the best move we can make right now. Our center simply isn't equipped with the facilities or staff to deal with cancer."

I supposed that was true, but I was still uneasy about some other things.

"And I'm going with him? Why?"

His face turned serious as he folded his hands in front of him.

Uh-oh, not a good sign. When adults did that, it meant that they were about to talk to you like you were 8.

"Jukodo-san. You are by far one of the best-trained therapists I have ever seen. And this is one of the top facilities in Germany. His parents have made it clear that the money they have given as a down payment to our establishment is to go towards him having his elbow healed. They will be VERY put out if there are no results from this facility. So, you are to go with him and heal him in the hospital we're sending him to. That way it will be under our name his elbow will be fixed."

"So in other words I'm there to claim credit for making his elbow work better but far enough away from you that you can cover your asses if he dies."

He shifted uncomfortably.

"Right."

"So where are you transporting him to?"

"Tokyo General Hospital."

Silence.

Tokyo? I could NOT go back to Japan. First place my team would look for me. Plus if my team found out that I had been working at this clinic, then they could track me to wherever this coward sent me. I would have to make my exit earlier than I planned.

"Thank you for letting me know."

I bowed and turned to leave.

"Oh, and Jukodo-san? The plane is coming tomorrow at 3pm. be packed and ready to move out by then."

3, huh? I was going to have to move fast.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Normal POV)

"Falcon? This is Blue Jay come in. I'm doing reconnaissance on the North side of Bremen on Hepstedt."

"This is Blue Jay coming in from the East side on Berne."

"Have you found any trace of her?"

"No, though I wasn't expecting to. She's in a disguise and we have no idea what it looks like. Plus she's one of the best."

"Neither have I."

"Keep a sharp eye out."

Silence ensued between the earpieces.

"So, who do you think screwed with the video?"

"I don't know, but it must have been someone from our team. The video was magnetized in just the right spot, for just long enough. Only someone trained in sabotage would know where the information on the computer would be stored and how to disable only the chunk of it. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that Nishimura is beginning to suspect."

"Suspect who?"

"I don't know. We're going to have to be more careful. Maybe lay low on the sabotage for now."

"What are you saying Mochizuki!?! You're going to give up?!?!"

"No, no! Now keep your voice down and don't say my name. There's a REASON we're using code names, _falcon._"

"Oh, don't be such a worrywart, Mochizuki. I've switched the channels on our communicators, wherever the others are, searching the city, they can't hear us."

"I said don't call me by my name and I meant it falcon. And…did you seriously just use the word worrywart?"

He heard a giggle from the other line.

"You know it."

He could just envision the smile on her face as she said it, and from a city away he smiled at the thought.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Somewhere on the south side of Bremen)

Nishimura, glared down at the communicator in his hands, knowing what he had to do.

_This is what it means to be a leader. Doing the hard stuff. _

He just couldn't believe that Mochizuki and Koga would betray him like that. And that was all he could think as he picked up his cell phone.

"Yeah, headmaster? We have a situation."

**Thanks for reading! Now go review! That's an order! If you don't I'll send Azumi after you hehehe mwahahahahahaha! Just kidding, she's a bit preoccupied right now, but review anyways :)**


	7. Followthrough

**Hoorah for quick updates! That should make up for abandoning you guys for a month a bit I hope. Having said that, I may not be able to do it as quickly any time soon. I'm off to New York soon :) to see the US Open! Yay! And then I get back just in time for school. I don't really know what to expect during the school year though. It's a new school so we'll see what happens. I'm actually really nervous, but enough about me. Here's the story!**

**Stelra Etnae: Yeah, well they _are_ twins haha! Though I don't know if her looking like a guy (no matter how good-looking he is) is a good thing haha. I still don't know if she's going to be gorgeous or not...suggestions? Any input is welcomed. Thanks for reviewing! :)**

**invisible-gurl: I know, right? They're just afraid to take responsibility. Though I guess that that could also be blamed on lawyers. All the malpractice lawsuits leave doctors afraid. i actually have a whole rant about that but I'll spare you haha. Thanks for reviewing! :) **

**Jelotto: Wow, what a great review. Thanks for taking the time to ;)**

**AkimotoAyumu: Haha! I would respond to you, but seeing as you're dead I'll just send it to your next of kin haha. Your review cracked me up. Thanks for always reviewing even when you're too lazy to log in. I appreciate it a lot :)**

(Azumi POV)

"…"

Silence enveloped the room, in its powerful, and rather awkward grasp.

And we're waiting…….and waiting……and waiting. My insides were ready to burst from all the pressure that filled the room. It felt like the walls were closing in on me as I waited for Tezuka's reply.

SAY SOMETHING! My mind screamed. Man, was I bad at this bedside manner thing. I would be patient though. I was going to leave that night anyway. I could stand to be professional for another 10 seconds or so…I thought.

Finally, he opened his mouth.

"Do we know if it's benign or malignant?"

Somehow, the calm way he was taking the news that he had small tumors in his bronchial tubes was NOT adding to the ease in the room. It was almost as though all the emotions in him and me were just screaming to get out, but the situation didn't allow it. So awkwardness continued to reign in the stead of his pain and my concern.

I shook my head. "We don't even know if there are tumors for sure. This facility is not _equipped_," I winced at my exact use of the words that I had heard from Dr. Peters just minutes ago, "to deal with this sort of thing. We do know that there is inflammation already due to your pneumonia, and the added blockage of…of whatever that thing in your lungs is, makes you very at risk."

He nodded and massaged the bridge of his nose.

I continued, "So, you and I will be flying to Tokyo at 3pm tomorrow. I'll be packing your things, as you have to rest. Just tell me how you want it done."

I was not pleased about being Tezuka's personal slave, but as I said, I was going to be ditching him that night anyways. Not that I was all that pleased about that prospect either.

He remained silent as I made myself busy packing his clothes.

Tennis shirt, tennis shorts, tennis shorts, tennis shirt, athletic socks, wristband geez! Did he have any regular clothes? I supposed that he WAS one of the Japan's top juniors so I guess if he was sponsored, than that would make sense of the bountiful amount of tennis attire he seemed to have.

Needless to say, packing his 50 zillion tennis outfits was going to take a long time. The only clothes that weren't tennis attire were the ones that had been left up to dry. I began to fold them and put them away, as I did, I noticed that they were still damp. That could get gross; nothing said, "Welcome home!" like a suitcase full of wet clothes to unpack when you're tired from the flight. I was going to have to dry them. Let's all give a big hoorah for slavery.

Ugh.

How'd he even manage to get his clothes this wet anyway?

Idiot.

"I'm going to go dry these clothes." I explained as I began to leave the room.

Don't ask. Don't ask. It's unprofessional. Why should he tell you? Don't do it. Don't d–

"Ne, Tezuka. How _did _your clothes get so wet?"

Dang it. Really needed to work on that self-control. My curiosity always seemed to win, which in the spy business was considered a good thing, a must even. As a doctor…not so much.

He looked at me, a bit dazed, like I had just brought him out of his own deep musings. Which, would probably have been accurate aside from the fact that he seemed to have the depth of a kiddie pool. The only things that I had collected about his personality thus far were that he was somewhat polite, _very _quiet, and had an aura that stunk of bored arrogance. Okay, so maybe that last one was just my own assumption, but I was sure that it was true.

"I got caught in the rain."

I made a mental note to add stupid to that list.

Really? Caught in the rain? Could he not _see_ yesterday? It had been pouring. I got yelled at because this imbecile couldn't tell it was raining?! His glasses were obviously not thick enough, or maybe his skull that was _too_ thick.

Don't say anything. Nope. Zip. Nada. Keep your mouth shut. Nope, no, no bad Azumi! Shut that mouth, don't you dar-

"How do you get 'caught in the rain' between the airport and the clinic?"

You came in a _car_. You can't get caught in the rain in a _car. _Unless it happened to be a convertible. And as soon as the clinic let _anyone_ ride in that kind of style, they had better have notified me first.

Thank goodness I didn't say that part aloud.

He gave me his signature, irritating blank stare.

I had to add annoying on the list too.

Well, it looked like I wasn't going to get an answer, at least for now. Defeated, I strode out of the room to dry his clothes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Nishimura paced slowly in front of his four team members in the D-room, with the formidability of a drill sergeant. Each member was clam on the outside in perfect at-ease position. Eyes forward, chin up, feet shoulder width apart, hands clasped behind the back, and of course a tumult of fear inside.

Something was wrong. There was tension in the air that clenched at them like an icy blizzard. Nishimura was a leader, and supposedly, they were always supposed to show him this kind of respect, but it had never been that way with Azumi. The team was not used to it so commanding them with absolute authority proved difficult for Nishimura when he rose to leader.

This, this was too, too formal. Too unfamiliar and…and wrong. They all could sense it.

Nishimura stopped pacing in front of Mochizuki.

"We are on a mission. Correct?"

"Yes, sir!" Mochizuki barked, keeping his eyes looking straight ahead.

Nishimura began to pace again, before pausing in front of Koga.

"And on a mission, there is always an objective. Is there not Koga?"

"Yes, sir!"

He was looking straight into her eyes as she kept her gaze at the far wall in front of her. She fought viciously in her head to keep the fear from showing on her face that would give her away.

"What is our mission now?"

"To bring in a traitor, sir!"

"Right, quite right Koga." He began to pace again. "But somehow, it's been how long, Asai?"

"3 days, sir!"

He stopped and turned a ferocious glare on them all. "THREE days. That is unacceptable! I thought you were trained to be agents, not whiney children!"

He began to walk slowly back to where Mochizuki and Koga were standing next to each other.

He lowered his voice as he stopped in front of them once again.

"Or at least that's what I thought…"

A smile grew on his lips and he turned away from them.

"Glitch after glitch, problem after problem. Awfully convenient for Azumi isn't it? An interesting string of _coincidences. _At first I thought that I was merely stuck with a bunch of _incompetent fools. _It turns out I was wrong. Well," he refocused his gaze on Koga and Mochizuki and chuckled. "I was half right. You're not incompetent; no you're far from that. But _fools, _yes!"

By now he was right in their faces as they blankly stared ahead of them.

"You stalled for her! Why!? You said it yourself! She is a traitor!"

Mochizuki, slowly tore his gaze from the wall to Nishimura. When he spoke, it was gentle and calm as though he were patronizing a spoiled child.

"What…are you accusing us of?"

"You know! You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

Nishimura had officially lost it. He was practically foaming at the mouth in his anger. He grabbed a remote and pressed a button, directing it towards the speakers.

"_So, who do you think screwed with the video?"_

"_I don't know, but it must have been someone from our team. The video was magnetized in just the right spot, for just long enough. Only someone trained in sabotage would know where the information on the computer would be stored and how to disable only the chunk of it. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that Nishimura is beginning to suspect."_

"_Suspect who?"_

"_I don't know. We're going to have to be more careful. Maybe lay low on the sabotage for now."_

"_What are you saying Mochizuki!?! You're going to give up?!?!"_

"_No, no! Now keep your voice down and don't say my name. There's a REASON we're using code names,_ falcon_."_

"_Oh, don't be such a worrywart, Mochizuki. I've switched the channels on our communicators, wherever the others are, searching the city, they can't hear us."_

"_I said don't call me by my name and I meant it falcon. And…did you seriously just use the word worrywart?"_

Nishimura pressed another button that ended the recording with that same triumphant, sadistic, evil smile plastered on his face.

"Now what do you have to say in your defense?" he sneered.

Koga and Mochizuki had kept an even look on their faces through the whole thing as did Asai, though Tokaji looked as though he were having a serious eye twitch problem.

Mochizuki spoke again in the same calm voice, "Doctored tapes won't hold up anywhere, Nishimura."

Then he cracked. He really did.

"YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN CONVICTED! YOU'RE BEING SENT BACK TO THE ACADEMY!" At his words, a handful of teenagers stormed into the D-room. "GET THESE TWO OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

The other agents dragged Mochizuki and Koga away. They didn't protest as they were roughly handled out of the room. Asai and Tokaji looked on in a mix between amusement, shock, and complacency.

"Asai? Tokaji? Watch and learn from them. Do. Not. Cross. Me." Nishimura then gestured to two teenagers who had not left with Mochizuki's and Koga's captors. "These are their replacements, Tsubara Makoto and Saito Haru."

Tsubara, Saito, Asai, and Tokaji all bowed to each other, staring intently at each other, sizing the other up.

"I'm sure we'll all have fun working together." Nishimura said as the evil grin once again crept over his lips.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

"So, why did you decide to start tennis?"

I had managed to get him talking quite a lot using my previous technique. Talk about tennis. It was an easy rule to follow and it was nice to have a little conversation as I folded yet another tennis shirt and shoved it in his suitcase. Not only that, but it was easier to not hate him when he was talking. His face almost looked…thoughtful.

Amazingly, this conversation had been going on for a total of 7 minutes! I think I must have broken the record. Okay, so we weren't exactly spilling out our deepest secrets to each other or anything but I had to start somewhere if I was going to break that poker face. And I _was_ going to break it before I left that night, or rather sometime in the early, early morning. The sun had long since gone down as I had scurried around preparing things for our fake/his real departure.

"My grandfather. He wanted me to learn wing chun, but I didn't like the violence. People are violent enough without having a whole sport devoted to it."

I internally winced. If he had that much to say about even recreational violence, then what would he think of me? And what I had been trained all my life to do?

"In tennis, there is still a battle, but it's of the wills and the skills one has already acquired through hard work one puts in before. It should never used to intentionally hurt someone."

As he had talked, his right arm had moved to clutch his left elbow. I don't think he had even realized it as he had been talking. Interesting.

"You know I really haven't even done my job yet. I was originally hired to examine your elbow. Since we have time, may I diagnose it?'

"Ah…"

I moved over to the left side of his bed and took his arm in my hands. I forgot that I had been trying to avoid skin contact with him. My fingers felt hypersensitive, which was strange, but not entirely unwelcome. That would definitely help me in my diagnosing skills, which were rather rusty to begin with, also I was ready for the weird feeling this time.

What did surprise me was when I touched him, he stiffened and almost pulled back.

"Am I hurting you?"

He looked away so I couldn't read his face.

"No…"

A puzzled expression came over my face. It mirrored my feelings rather well at the moment.

Okay, so either he was putting up a false bravado and his elbow really _did_ hurt (that one seemed most likely), or maybe…just maybe he was feeling like I did…which would make him gay…ewwww.

I'm really hoping for the first one.

I continued to probe the muscle and ligaments of his arms using my fingers.

Touching a pressure point, I asked, "Does this hurt?"

He made no response. I took it as a no. His macho routine was going to make this diagnosis extremely difficult.

Refusing to cater to his stubbornness, I moved to another point.

"Does this hurt?"

Once again, no response.

I moved again.

"And this?"

Silence.

"How about here?"

His arm gave a jerk as he recoiled.

Bingo! I know I shouldn't have but it gave me a bit of satisfaction. If he was going to make things difficult for me (i.e. getting me reprimanded, inadvertently making me his slave, and driving me up the wall with his very expression) than if I was allowed to get back at him even just a little, that was okay by me.

I creased my brow. I thought I knew the problem, but was it okay to lay one _more _thing on Tezuka? He already had more than enough on his plate. But I was curious to know how he got this injury too…

If any of you have been paying attention at all to my mannerisms this whole time, than I'm pretty sure you can already tell which won out in the battle between courtesy and curiosity.

Probing the area a little more making sure not to hurt him, I was now certain of my diagnosis.

"The inflamed area appears to be your bursa sac."

He nodded in understanding, which surprised me a bit. I mean, how many 17-year old guys know what a bursa sac is? Well, minus me of course, but I don't think that I really counted for several reasons I'll forgo mentioning.

For those of you who don't know a bursa sac is a sac (didn't see that one coming did you?) that acts as a cushion between bone and other tissues like skin, tendons, or muscles. When a bursa sac gets infected or injured than inflammation occurs that area (in this case Tezuka's elbow) becomes tender and irritated. The formal name for it is Bursitis and is caused normally by overuse, trauma to the area, or infection. I just wondered which had caused Tezuka's.

"This kind of injury is normally caused by overuse, trauma, or infection. To be able to treat this most effectively, it would be good to know which of those causes you think most likely contributed to your Bursitis."

Okay, so I was lying. It _didn't_ really matter. The treatment would be the same no matter which had caused the injury, but I wanted to know.

"…" He remained silent for a bit, but it seemed as though he were searching for an answer and as long as he was going to respond, I didn't mind him taking his time while he did it.

"I did originally have…trauma to the area, which may have contributed to the problem." He said reluctantly, "But, I believe that this particular instance was probably caused by overuse."

I nodded, as though I were considering how to best treat his elbow due to that information. Ha! Not like he had given me much information anyways…

It seemed almost as though he were being deliberately vague. Questioning much more would raise too much suspicion, so I halted my subtle, incognito interrogation of Tezuka to pack.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(??? POV)

I let my chest rise and fall slowly, breathing heavily. Anyone who happened to still be awake at this hour would presume me asleep, which was exactly how I wanted it to be. If I was good at anything, it was blending in.

Cracking my eyes open just enough to scan the room to my right, I could see the slow rise and fall of the other team members' bodies in an actual slumber, I hoped. Slowly I rose, yawning as I stretched as though I had just woken up. I rubbed my eyes and took a better look around. No one had stirred.

Bolder now, I stood up and tiptoed over the sleeping bodies to the door. Always keeping a wary eye on the other sleeping members, I cracked the door open slowly and slipped out of the room.

I began to make my way down the hall to the bathroom, walking while my mind was screaming at me to run. I denied the feeling as I tried to appear casual and sleepy. You could definitely not be too careful, especially now that Koga and Mochizuki had been caught.

I opened the bathroom door and quickly checked all the stalls.

Empty.

I didn't bother to check the bathroom for cameras or bugs because that would just be so wrong. I didn't think that anyone on the team would stoop so low.

I pulled out the cell phone in my pocket and after pressing a few key buttons watched as it transformed into a mini laptop with all the settings a hacker could dream of and of course some that they never had.

Tapping furiously, I went to the browser any good computer hacker goes to, to find a website. Google.

Though we had all returned from our surveillance of Bremen without reporting anything about Azumi, it didn't mean that any of us didn't _have_ anything to report.

I had found her.

And now that Mochizuki and Koga had been caught, I needed her help more than ever. I didn't know of any other agent who had ever defied the headmaster for the sake of her friends. She needed to know.

No, it was more than that, she _deserved_ to know.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

Done!

I wiped my brow and heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

I was finally done packing.

I glanced over at Tezuka who had once again fallen asleep. Though I felt guilty for keeping him up, the conversation helped to keep my mind from wandering too much. As much as I disliked him, talking him was enjoyable.

I rose from my seat in front of his suitcase, about to leave when I remembered the laptop by Tezuka's bed.

I might as well take it back to Dr. Peters while I was on my way out.

I walked over to it and picked it up.

I was about to close it when the screen suddenly lit up.

It startled me at first, but then I thought that it might just be the tennis team e-mailing back.

I decided to check.

But, upon looking, there was no e-mail.

Huh, that was odd. There was a chat box open. I didn't think Tezuka was the exactly the internet savvy type.

Curious, I click on it.

A message popped up. I nearly dropped the computer.

This could not be happening. How?

_RM: Azumi. You need to go back to Tokyo._

Had someone found me? Was this some kind of test? Who was this person? And what did the RM stand for? How did they know my real name? How did they get access to this computer? Basically, WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!?!?!

Okay, Azumi, calm yourself. I hadn't realized it but the laptop was shaking because my arms were about to give out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Okay, I can handle this. If they've hacked into a closed system laptop, then they must be from the academy. If they're contacting me instead of barging in and dragging me back to Tokyo, they must either want something or be a friend. So there was nothing to worry about….right?

I sure hoped so. But why did they want me to return to Tokyo? I was going to have to talk to them.

_Guest: Why?_

_RM: Your friends are in trouble._

_Guest: Which friends?_

_RM: Two of your team. If you don't hurry it'll be too late._

_Guest: How do I know I can trust you?_

_RM: Click on this: [link]_

It could have been a computer virus. But that's the worst and since it wasn't my laptop, I thought what the heck?

I clicked on it.

It was a video clip. I watched in horror. Nishimura was convicting Mochizuki and Koga.

"_Doctored tapes won't hold up anywhere, Nishimura." _

"_YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN CONVICTED! YOU'RE BEING SENT BACK TO THE ACADEMY!" At his words, a handful of teenagers stormed into the D-room. "GET THESE TWO OUT OF MY SIGHT!"_

I closed the window. I couldn't watch anymore. Furious, I was going to find out how this person knew.

_Guest: How do you know all this?_

But he had already logged off.

I closed the chat window.

I sat for a bit, mulling the recent turn of events over. My horror was fading at what I had seen, anger slowly taking its place. And then, the anger turned into conviction.

I didn't know who that person was. I didn't even know if it was a trap. But I did know one thing for sure.

I was going to Tokyo.

**Another chapter done! Please, please, please review! You know how you can check your story's traffic? Doesn't it just KILL you when you have like 200 people who looked at it and then only like 2 of them review?! Well, it kills me. please let me know what you think! See, this is a person actually asking for your opinion. Yes you! Someone actually wants to know what YOU think because YOU can make me a better writer if you just leave a review. There's the button, right there! I mean, how many times have people actually CARED about what you think? Here's your chance to give your input or else I'll continue to be a crappy writer in total obliviousness. You'll just be another hit that I have no idea the impression you were left with. Okay rant over. *Breathes deeply***

**Anyways, thanks for reading :)**


	8. Pressure point

**Hey guys! Whoo! First two weeks of school over! And there are SO many people! Well, I actually went from like a class of 11 to 600, so it's a bit of a transition haha. But I'm surviving. Sometimes, though I wish I had a bulldozer just to get through the halls hehe. Well, anyways, you guys have been ever so patient waiting for the next chapter, which I have been ever so lazily, stalling on haha. I met a bit of a roadblack on this one but I think I ironed it out okay. You guys can let me know. Thanks for reading! :)**

**AkimotoAyumu: Haha, that's good. Keep asking questions! I did that in Chemistry a lot and then my teacher would go off on tangents and we'd never end up getting homework so you never know where it can get you hehe ;) Apparently a lot of people like the laptop idea...hmm maybe I'll be an inventor when I grow up and make one haha. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Stelra Etnae: Thanks! That's why it took me so long to update, I couldn't figure out how I was going to do it haha. I'm glad you appreciate my hours of banging my head against the wall trying to come up with a plausible solution haha. Just kidding, but it did take some time. Yes! Mission accomplished, that's exactly how i wanted to portray it :) I can like see it in my head like a TV show and there would be a lot of funny music to emphasize that whole dynamic haha. Thanks for reviewing!**

**ilovethisfanfic: Thanks! **

**.miss: Haha, yeah a lot of people seemed to like that invention. When I make it someday, I'll send you one free for reviewing haha. Now, if I only understood how electrity works....hehe ;P Anyways, thanks for reviewing!**

**soren011: Thanks for the suggestion! I will try and do it, though, I kind of want to keep it a mystery for now. Plus, he can't exactly think anything interesting about her, since..well she's a guy for now. Wow does that sound wrong/weird haha. Thanks for reviewing! **

(Azumi POV)

I walked shakily up the stairs that came down from the jet, trying to quell the uneasy feeling that threatened to make my already wobbly legs collapse under me. As I reached the munchkin of a doorway that led into the obscenely small jet, I felt myself begin to lose the battle.

I clutched the side railing for support.

Of course Tezuka _would_ be important enough to be transported in style. Private therapy center style. Cramped, death trap, hobbit-sized style.

I was _so _excited.

As an agent, I had had to travel the world on multiple occasions in numerous different modes of transportation quite frequently. Jets smaller than this one, to buses, to sports cars (my personal favorite), to planes as big as B7 bombers.

But I was _always, always, always, ALWAYS _the pilot/driver/person in control. Okay, so sometimes the vehicles I drove were out of control, but I was in control of their out-of-control-ness. Most of the time. But that's beside the point.

The problem here was the fact that if the jet went down, I would die.

Everyone give a hoorah for the duh statement of the day! But, I was used to being able to fight death by any means possible. By cheating an assassin, wrestling a plane from grips of gravity, escaping, cutting a wire in a bomb, etc.

Here, the pilot was cut off from the main plane compartment. Supposedly, it was for mutual safety. Passengers couldn't distract the pilots and in turn the pilots (hopefully) could fly so as not to kill their passengers.

I didn't buy it. Not for one second. If the plane started to go down, then no matter how much I tried to knock that door in, I would be stuck. Stuck with Tezuka in a crashing plane with no parachutes (which of course they didn't have, it's not like their anticipating a crash I mean, how many commercial airliners have parachutes? Don't answer that, it'll just make me more nervous).

And the worst part, the worst part was that this whole situation could easily be avoided if they knew who I really was. But I couldn't risk it. I'd be dead for sure if I did. Especially if Mochizuki and Koga were already caught.

Though the odds of traveling thousands of miles in a plane were much higher than the odds of me surviving if I was found by the headmaster, it didn't seem to help the feeling of foreboding that was stuck in the forefront of my mind.

I mean, there are SO many people who have died through plane crashes. Specifically, private jet crashes. Keith Green, Stevie Ray Vaughn, the singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Randy Rhoads came to mind immediately

Good thing I wasn't a musician or I'd be a goner for sure.

I gripped the rail and steeled my mind to walk into the plane.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

I tried to concentrate extra hard on the simple things to keep my mind from fretting, which it seemed to be prone to do.

My slow, measured steps took me inside the craft to where Tezuka already sat. Looking at him, you wouldn't even know that he was sick. He was dressed in comfortable clothes (tennis clothes, what else?) with that sickening look of composure on his face. The only indication that he was remotely sick was the IV that was supplying a steady supply of liquids to the tube that ran into his arm.

I threw my backpack on the ground (you don't have to do any of that overhead bin or under the seat crap when you're riding in a private jet, HA! Jealous? Don't be. I was going to die) and took a seat next to him.

I shot him a friendly smile that was meant to be reassuring. It felt uncomfortable on my face, like it had been pasted on. My knuckles were quite a blanch shade of white from gripping my armrest while the rest of me was as stiff as a board, ready to go into full panic mode at any moment.

He gave me one look before asking, "Do you not fly much?"

My elation of him actually _initiating _a conversation was conflicting with the fact that he had seen right through my guise. I must be slipping. That was _not_ okay.

Ignoring the conflict over reconciling these two opposite feelings in my head, I turned to him, my smile turned sheepish.

"Hehe, no it's just that I've never flown on a private jet before. Though I do happen to know a slew of my favorite musicians died in them. It's not exactly comforting"

I had long ago decided that though I was in undercover, which meant inherently deceiving people, I would try my best to be as honest as possible without compromising myself. It was a tricky and somewhat unnecessary risk but it was the only way I could cope with all the lies. Spoken or unspoken.

He nodded in understanding.

"I know what you mean. I haven't ridden a lot of planes in general." He replied.

"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

I was skeptical. How could this stoic, unchanging person feel anything? Even when he found out that he potentially had cancer, he was calm for crying out loud! Fear, seemed an impossible thing for him to understand, much less empathize with.

"Ah." He affirmed.

He paused. "Are you surprised that I haven't ridden a lot of planes?"

"Oh, no." I said quickly. The next words did not come as easily however. I didn't want to him to know what I thought of him.

"What surprised me," I paused and looked straight at him. 'Was that you were afraid."

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. He didn't say anything but the arched eyebrow was obviously meant to say "How so?"

"Tezuka-san, I've had a lot of patients," I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. But internally, I winced. So much for honesty.

No one, and I do mean _no one,_ takes their diagnosis with as much," I paused, searching for a word that would mean something along the lines of being-an-emotionless-irritating-block-of-wood only a bit more tactful than that. "Grace, as you have. It almost seems unnatural. Like you have no emotions."

The raised eyebrow cam down as it knit with the other in an expression of concentration.

Oops.

I think I said more than I meant to. The feeling of crap-I-said-too-much mixed with the happiness that not only had he started a conversation but he had also shown me _two, _count'em _two _expressions in the space of that conversation.

He seemed to mull it over as he looked off into space.

The silence persisted for a bit until the plane suddenly jerked to life. The stairs retracted, closing the doorway and I felt my hysteria rise trying to take over me again.

My grip on the armrest became tighter as I threatened to splinter it into a thousand tiny little pieces.

I don't know about you, but there is something very therapeutic about destroying things. There's nothing like smashing something into oblivion to calm one self down. Though, I didn't think that the therapy center would much appreciate it, so I tried to keep my grip a little looser. It was harder than it sounded.

Tezuka once again, proving to be much more perceptive than I gave him credit for, reached forward and began digging around in his bag.

His hands emerged a few moments later with a tennis ball.

He handed it to me.

"Here. Squeeze this. It's a little better than breaking the plane apart." He said with a slight smile.

Wait. Did he just make a joke? _And_ smile? And did he just notice my unease…_again!? _And why on earth did he have a tennis ball in his backpack?

The questions swirled in my mind (some more prevalent than others) as I stared at the ball in a daze like an idiot.

He just held it out as my mind struggled to comprehend how all my assumptions about him (besides the one that he was addicted to tennis, that one was pretty much verified, if anything) were shattered in one gesture.

Still staring at the ball as though it were a foreign object, I slowly (and with great effort) pried my hands from the armrests they had been trying to crush and took the ball from his outstretched hand.

I rolled it over in my hands in wonder. As I stared at it, I noticed that there were signatures on it.

"What are these?" I asked as I continued to examine it.

"That ball was a parting gift from the tennis team. They all signed it." His eyes became softer as he too looked at the ball. Though his expression was less what-the-crap-just-happened and more of a loving stare from a father who had been away from home but very much wished to be there.

Tennis team? I thought and a little bell went off in my head as I hurriedly searched for Ryoma's signature.

I didn't find it.

What I did find were the words "Mada mada dane" scrawled in his handwriting and I just had to smile.

That's when it dawned on me in full force:

I was finally going home.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Something had changed.

Nishimura, who had only a day before, only shown mock anger and frustration, had finally snapped.

Asai and Tokaji both agreed (silently and in secret of course) that he had officially lost it.

He was no longer the leader of the best operating team in all of Imei. He was the tattletale, morally corrupt, backstabber to all the students and the leader of a dysfunctional, rapidly disintegrating, team full of traitors in the eyes of the faculty.

And all of it had gone straight to his head.

Tension in the air was always heavier now. The atmosphere, uncomfortable. And the tolerance for error, zero.

It was a far cry from the dynamic of the healthy, working, efficient, ruthless team that they needed to be. Quite simply, they were falling apart.

The funny thing was that the new agents, Saito Kohaku and Miura Aki didn't seem to notice. Asai and Tokaji could feel everything that was out of place. Every tense moment that dragged on for a seemingly endless amount of time.

Under Nishimura, fear ruled.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

I snapped my eyes open when I felt something nudge me. I became instantly alert and began to run through my mental checklist.

Where am I? Therapy private jet. What am I doing here? Protecting my team under the pretense of protecting Tezuka. Am I physically okay? Check. What had I just been doing? Sleeping on Tezuka's shoulder.

Oh, that wasn't so good.

I shook my head to clear the rest of the fuzziness from my head. I looked over at Tezuka who had nudged me.

"We're here."

Wow, already?

The trip had gone by so fast.

Tezuka, whether he was truly concerned, did it out of a sense of duty, or somewhere in between, had sensed my unease on the plane ride and taken it upon himself to distract me from my fears.

Throughout the entire 10-hour trip, he had kept up decent conversation (in which we hit several other topics than tennis).

We would have tried to watch a movie but I doubted that Tezuka would have appreciated any violent movies considering why he had taken up tennis instead of training with his grandfather. That eliminated all movies but chick flicks, which were out since we were both um, _guys_. And guys just didn't do that…I thought.

Instead, we watched tennis matches. Well, I say watched but I'm sure that Tezuka was being transfixed by the sheer joy of watching the only thing that made him talk, light up, or show any signs of being human in general.

He commentated and cracked some genuine smiles at the victories of people I could only assume to be his favorite players. I commentated as well and jabbed him in the ribcage at the victories of my favorite players who somehow always tended to be _not _his. This led to a series of heated (at least I got heated, Tezuka just kind of spoke more sternly, which for him is the virtual equivalent to me standing up and screaming my lungs out) debates concerning the pros and cons of one-handed vs. two-handed shots, brute force of will vs. skill, and other things that had nothing to do with ordinary life in general.

And I had had the best time doing it.

I had forgotten my fear almost completely. So much in fact, I guess I had even fallen asleep. Though I didn't remember that part.

I smiled, internally, at Tezuka sitting next to me and actually let it well up onto my face, sharing it with him, as I stretched, just like before we had taken off. Only this smile was much more genuine and contained a silent thank you that I hoped he would understand.

He half-smiled at me in response, acknowledging the walls we had managed to break down during the plane ride.

I think I liked that a lot better than his nods.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Mochizuki sat in a cold metal chair, twirling a lock of his white hair around his finger. His face was in the practiced, tried and true scowl of a surly pubescent teenager that sneered at all authority.

Across from him was an authority figure, who seemed either immune or apathetic about Mochizuki's cocky expression.

"Mochizuki, why do you protect her?" the man asked in an irritating, psychiatrist's manner.

Mochizuki remained silent.

"_You_," the man paused, " are protecting a killer. A murderer. Of your close friend as well. Protecting her," he paused again, trying to create a sense of drama and seriousness, "is the same as killing him."

Mochizuki still stared at any place other than the man, with the same bored expression. His thoughts reflected the same attitude.

_Epic fail_. He thought. _This guy is acting like a little kid's psychiatrist. That would make me the little kid…ugh. I hate patronizing people. Haha, patronizing people make for pathetic psychiatrists. Purple peppers pillage…._

His inattention to the droning "psychiatrist" as he was now dubbed, escaped the notice of said professional, as he droned on in vain as his guilt-trip fell on deaf ears.

To be honest, Mochizuki had expected much worse treatment than the predicament he now found himself to be in. He pondered this fact, as he "listened" to the shpeel that was being given to him. Perhaps, it was just because he was part of a top team, and was too valuable to treat all that badly. Or, perhaps it was the opposite and he just wasn't worth the energy to torture. Though he was sure that if his interrogation went any further he would die of boredom.

Sighing, he turned his head to stare out the one-way glass, imagining whatever may be on the other side. And somewhere, Koga was out there too.

He hoped that she was faring better than him.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Koga sat in a small dorm, somewhere. She didn't exactly know where she was, but she presumed herself to be at Imei high, since the room she found herself in, resembled a typical dorm room of Imei. Though, the hidden weapons panel that was hidden behind the west wall was absent as well as any sort of window or vent, much to her dismay.

She had already thoroughly searched her room for any means of escape and had, instead, found several cameras and a few bugs.

_Great. I feel like a specimen stuck under a microscope slide._

She hung her head between her elbows, which rested on her knees. That was the most motion that she had made since sitting down on the rickety cot opposite the door. She needed to conserve energy. That was why she didn't dare to move, even breathe.

But, she hadn't moved in 5 hours and honest to goodness, her butt was numb.

She was also going insane.

After pondering the same question as Mochizuki, she had also come up with an answer. Though her answer was quite different and, as it turned out, much more accurate than Mochizuki's.

Mochizuki had wondered why he and Koga were not being tortured. Koga had come up with the answer.

They_ were_ being tortured.

Having 5 hours to think about things had given her quite enough time to come up with a feasible solution.

The way students were punished at Imei was simple. Disobedience was _not _tolerated. Various forms of punishment were administered, ranging from privilege stripping, isolation, physical punishment, or…being "transferred". It was by far the worst judgment that could be administered.

And that was because it was a lie. Everyone knew it. There was no way that the government could let anyone of the students with the knowledge that they had, wander out from under their eye to a regular school.

They would disappear, and had that been the only thing that the kids had known about it, it may not have been so bad. But on a mission, one of the other students had met a "transferred" student.

And he had had no idea what Imei was, he didn't even know Japanese anymore. He didn't know his real name, and generally was ignorant of anything that had happened in his life. Oh, he had memories, but they were _all wrong. _The student who witnessed it, was never the same again. He had said that it had something to do with the transferred student's eyes, like they were hollow, vacant, empty. Devoid of emotion. Suffice it to say, it scared the crap out of him. And the rest of the students of Imei.

The display of sabotage and disobedience that Mochizuki and Koga had displayed was enough for them both to be transferred, twice over.

But to have punishment administered, especially transference, it had to be approved, by whom none of the students knew. What they did know that either a flat out confession of blatant disobedience had to be shown or enough evidence that it didn't matter.

The problem with that for the headmaster right now was that Mochizuki and her had not only not confessed but also had kept their cool during Nishimura's entire accusation. The conversation that Nishimura had overheard that had led to his accusation had been mysteriously erased (*cough* via the other person that was helping Azumi who Mochizuki and Koga don't know about it), and now the only evidence Nishimura was well…himself. They needed more proof, especially to convict two members of the top team in all Imei.

Normally, this would have put any student's mind at rest once they had considered all this. For, no one in their right mind was about to confess, and any student in Mochizuki and Koga's shoes would see that Imei would hate to lose them anyways.

However, Koga's mind was in a tumult. Her head ached and her chest felt heavy, because there was a little problem with the whole trial thing. It things kept going as they were, Mochizuki and her were doomed.

Imei students were constantly being evaluated. Their weaknesses and strengths constantly recorded and tested, but especially their weaknesses.

Hers was deadly. At least, in this case. She had almost been rejected from the program at Imei because of it. But her strengths, particularly her innate knowledge of computers and basically anything that had electricity running through it, made her indispensable.

Her weakness, however, was no less formidable. In her sleep, she would divulge any information. Asked, a question she would just spit out the answer in her subconscious. It was always truthful and, unfortunately detailed Not many people knew about her problem, but one person she knew, knew her secret was the headmaster. Actually, anyone with access to the school records was capable of using this flaw against her.

As soon as she fell asleep, she would confess everything about how Mochizuki and her had sabotaged Nishimura's efforts. They would record it no doubt and Mochizuki, having absolutely no idea that she did not divulge the secrets willingly, would think that she had betrayed him. And who knows how long Mochizuki would last when he thought that, she, his only confidante since Azumi left had stabbed him in the back.

They were probably keeping him busy, irritating him, so that he would be ready to crack when the time came to show of her supposed betrayal.

She sighed.

It was only a matter of time.

She couldn't stay awake forever. But, she had been trained to stay awake for long periods of time, just as every Imei student had. She had at least 3 days. Tops. If she didn't move, she would have longer because she wouldn't use up the calories in her system as quickly. If she knew Imei's headmaster, he wouldn't feed her, it would fuel her to keep her awake longer.

She didn't dare to lie down because than sleep could creep up on her much more easily. And standing would expend too much energy, so she was stuck, sitting on the edge of her cot, concentrating hard on not moving.

It was unbelievably boring.

She just had to hold out until…until, she didn't really know. It was hopeless. There was no one on the outside to rescue her, and right now, the only enemy was herself. She was the key to bringing down both herself, and Mochizuki. So she had to stay awake, though as she sat, becoming disheartened every second, she realized she really didn't know why she was trying. Defeat was inevitable.

A tear rolled from her eye and fell to the ground as a silent prayer rose from her small form, taking flight to where, she didn't know.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

I walked into the airport, just glad that my feet were once again on solid ground. If Tezuka hadn't been there, as soon as the airplane had landed, I would have run out, thrown myself onto the ground and kissed it.

The luggage in my arms was exceptionally light. Just my backpack that I had had since before visiting the D-room and small duffel full of doctor's scrubs. I had tried to carry Tezuka's luggage, his arm being all messed up and such, but he had insisted in his firm, silent manner that he was still capable of handling it. So, I trailed him as we walked into the airport from the runway strip.

His head was on a swivel as though he were searching for something. Now that I thought about it, I was supposed to be looking for our ride to the hospital. There just were no breaks for Tezuka. I was sure that he wished to go home. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

Before I had a chance to berate myself for my almost, accidental feeling of pity for a man who I was still very much wary of, I became aware of a red-haired boy, around 16, maybe 17 streaking towards Tezuka.

I immediately took action, dropping my duffel and quickly placing myself between Tezuka and the incoming, redheaded attacker.

I then realized, with much confusion, that he was not running, but cartwheeling towards Tezuka.

Now that was just odd.

I took a second glance at the situation and also noticed that the redhead was being followed by a group of similarly uniformed group of teenage boys. Either Tezuka was about to killed by an unusually cheery leader of a racket-toting teenage boy gang, or this was the tennis team. From Tezuka's face, I presumed the second. That was a bit of a risk since he never seemed to show fear, but I could see that look of fatherly love again in his eyes, and my muscles relaxed.

"Um, Jukodo-san, you might want to move."

I turned to look up at him.

"Why?"

I was immediately answered by pushed into Tezuka, by said redhead as he glomped Tezuka, and inadvertently, me.

It took all I had not to struggle out of the pile of bodies that I was being sandwiched between. Though instinct was a hard thing to deny. I kept all the energy contained to a very strong hand-twitch.

Meanwhile, the redhead was spouting words at rapid fire as I could feel Tezuka's muscles stiffen from the impact.

"Tezukanya!WemissedyouSOmuchOishiwasbeingallworriedI'msogladyou'reback!Everyonemissedyou–"

He was interrupted by the much slower, much more coherent, stern voice of Tezuka.

"Eiji. Get. Off. Me."

He immediately let go and continued to talk so fast that my head began to ache. I squeezed out from between them before the redhead could notice me and glanced over at the rest of the tennis team.

They were much further behind the redhead but were now almost to Tezuka. My eyes glanced over a bandanna-ed figure, one with glasses, one with closed eyes and a rather creepy smile, a spiky haired one, and one in a sushi maker's uniform and light brown hair. But my eyes barely noticed any of them. For there, in the middle of the group, looking bored and disinterested with his signature cap and ponta in hand Ryoma Echizen.

My brother.

**Well, there you go! I actually am really pumped that she finally met the time so I may (emphasis on MAY) update fairly quickly. We'll see. Thanks for reading! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! thank you!**


	9. Camaraderie of a family

**Okay, I give all you guys full rights to kill me. But seriously don't you think you'd rather hear the end first? I have it all planned out from here. the Echizen-Echizen reunion gave me some serious issues (which is why I didn't post for *cough cough* 2 months *cough*) and to be honest I'm not even sure if I'm quite satisfied with it still. If you guys don't like it either, I'll share some alternate ideas I had, but for now, this is what I got. So enjoy the seriously, seriously, late next chapter to....um....whatever this is called, oh yeah, Silent Lies!**

**soren011: Thanks! I'm glad you're not getting bored!**

**Zero-onE001: Haha, I know! I do the same thing when I'm watching my brother play tennis. It's so suspenseful that I just can't stand it. Poor tennis balls. They get the worst of everything haha.**

**Stelra Etnae: I know! I've always had a hard time writing evil things, because I think that even writing something like that must come from some sort of sick twisted mind. DOn't worry, I've already been checked out so I'm good...I think....haha**

**AkimotoAyumu: Don't worry about it. I totally understand. I have taken two months to update so we're kind of in the same boat. I'm still gald that you take the time to review though :)**

**.miss: I'm glad! thanks!**

**cupcakes: Sorry I couldn't incorporate his catchphrase in. I'll try really hard next chapter. Promise. And oh yes, I always end with a cliffhanger hehe ;)**

**Animealover: Wow, thanks you, I'm so flattered. And i ahevt o say that your review is what really motivated me through my terrible block on the Echizen reunion. The fact that you said "It's been one month" kept ringing in my head every time I tried to put it off so thank you!**

(Azumi POV)

I laughed, I cried, I shouted for joy, danced a jig, and let out a "Whoopee!" in the space of a second when I set eyes on Ryoma.

All in my head of course. Which kind of sucked for the rest of my body that was aching to jump for joy. The twitch in my hand returned. I guess that joy was just as hard to fight off as instinct.

My head was spinning. Ideas of how to get him alone and reveal myself were swirling around in my head. Each getting crazier as I kept thinking about the possibilities. I could create a diversion by throwing a dart from my wristwatch at a person across the room and wait for everyone to surround them. I could set off a grenade and throw it across the airport. I could run scream that the ponta truck is out back and run after him when he bolts out the door.

Wow, what great ideas. I am _such _a genius. Sometimes I didn't know how I did it.

It's not like all those would either give away my identity or contain information that I couldn't possibly know.

I would just have to bide my time.

Crud.

If there was one thing, besides not getting thrown out of Imei high, remaining calm on airplanes, and getting caught that I was _not _good at, it was waiting.

I tried to tear my gaze away from Ryoma, but my eyes were refusing to cooperate with me.

The rest of the group was pretty much on us now. I turned to get my duffel bag that I had dropped in my attempt to protect Tezuka from his non-existent attacker.

When I turned back to Tezuka, the team had surrounded Tezuka like a pack of wolves. Friendly, fuzzy, warm wolves.

To be honest, I felt a tad bit left out.

He must have been _some_ captain to warrant this kind of reception. I hung back from the crowd, allowing him to get the congratulations that were due him.

Back to being honest about what I was really feeling, I was trying really hard not to cry. I couldn't think of any place where I would be received with any welcome like Tezuka was now receiving.

But as usual, I kept it off of my face. Or at least, I thought I had.

As I gazed forlornly at the love and joy being shared around Tezuka, I made eye contact with the tennis member with a creepy smile and closed eyes. Though as I continued to stare longingly, his eyes, or lids I supposed, came in contact with my gaze.

And to my surprise, he opened his eyes, to reveal the purest, brightest, and most piercing blue that I had ever seen, not even in the D-room with a hundred different shades of blue contacts had I seen such a vivid shade.

The smile disappeared from his face and his expression became one of scrutiny, perplexion even. In that one look, I was almost certain that he could see through my disguise. I had to rally all my defenses to the forefront of my mind so that I didn't shrink beneath his penetrating gaze.

Then, it was gone. His eyes were closed and the smile was back in its rightful place on the front of his face.

It happened so fast that at first, I was at a loss as to how it happened at all. The only confirmation I had, that _something_ had occurred when I had looked at him, was the fact that he had separated himself from the group and began to walk over.

My mind had gone to red alert. I had been trained to recognize threats and I could tell that this boy was nothing but. I hardened my face while setting as close to a real smile as I could on my face.

"Hello, my name is Jukodo Ryuu. I've come back with Tezuka as his trainer." I said amicably as I extended my hand in greeting.

"Nice to meet you Jukodo-san. My name is Fuji Syuusuke. But you can just call me Fuji." He gripped my hand firmly, though I noticed that his hands were unusually soft. Especially for a tennis player's.

"So, you're on the tennis team?" I asked, trying to make friendly conversation. Hopefully the other people on Tezuka's team were more talkative than he was. Judging from the hyperactive redhead, I was sure that Tezuka hadn't influenced them too much.

"Sah. I am. Do you play tennis?"

"No, though I wouldn't mind learning. I've been a little busy with medical school."

He nodded his head thoughtfully.

"I thought you looked a little young to be doctor. If you don't mind my asking, how old _are _you?"

"17." I answered. "My parents were a little intense about school." I added sheepishly.

He leaned in closer and opened his eyes again. The intensity of his stare was amplified by the seriousness that was fused with his voice.

"So, how _is_ Tezuka?"

I could tell he meant business. Behind the stern expression that he now donned, I could see the concern that had brought it on. I decided to answer him truthfully. He must have been one of Tezuka's closer friends. It did not bring joy to my heart though, talking about it made it seem so much more real, and much more dangerous.

I looked him full on just so that he could understand the gravity of what I had to say and also that I was not leaving out any important details.

"His elbow is fine. He is merely suffering from bursitis. The good news is that it is fixable."

"The bad news?"

I sighed. "It may take 6-8 weeks and he cannot play tennis for at least 10. I have to be here during that whole period to run periodical tests and also keep him from overexerting himself." I smiled a little to myself at my, so far futile, attempts at stopping him from doing anything. "That second part is proving to be much harder than I had anticipated."

Fuji closed his eyes and chuckled a soft, feminine kind of chuckle.

"That does sound like our Tezuka." He said with that soft smile on his face again.

Just as quickly though it dropped and I felt like I was being interrogated again.

"But, doctor, I feel as though you're leaving something out."

Man, was _everyone_, on this tennis team _so dang perceptive!?!?!_

Gritting my teeth, and with a forced pleasant manner, I answered him, "How perceptive of you Fuji. There…is…something else."

My anger melted as I tried to break the news lightly to Fuji who obviously had a very strong concern for his friend Tezuka.

"We have some inconclusive x-rays of cancer. That is why we have been transported out here. The facility we were at was full of cowards." I stated firmly, steel glinting in my eyes. "So, in case…in case something…goes not as planned. It doesn't fall on their filthy, trembling hands." I finished in a heated whisper, spitting out the last few words.

My passion surprised me. I had only known Tezuka for 3 days and I already was outraged at any injustice to him. Something about him kept getting to me…

Then I realized that Fuji was still staring at me intently. Uncomfortable at both my composure and also what I had just said, I brushed past him with my duffel to stand next to Tezuka.

The excitement still had not died down much around him, though it was less Tezuka centered now, and just random pandemonium.

"Momo! Kaidoh! 10 laps around the airport."

Two of the taller members, one with a distinctive green bandanna and the one with spiky hair and purple eyes, stopped mid-punch to turn to the captain.

"Hai, buchou." They responded in unison and then they ran off to….run 10 laps I guessed…

Wow, he just told them to run laps? In public? And they actually did it? Now I understood a little better why he was always so concerned about them. He was practically the father of this bunch of rowdy teenagers. They responded to him without question and he loved them with reckless abandon.

The bitterness in my heart welled up a little bit more.

It was still a little weird that they were running 10 laps around the airport though. They must be seriously intense about tennis. No wonder Ryoma respected this man so much. He'd have to enough for the two of us anyways, because I sure wasn't going to.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Fuji slowly walking back, the mask back on his face.

Tezuka seemed to have control over the situation now. I could tell that even Ryoma was listening now, though he still had that bored expression on his face.

Pointing to me he announced, "This is Jukodo Ryuu. He will be staying as an extension of the German therapy center I was transferred from. I am sure that you will all be cordial to him, while he is staying with us."

I felt 6 pairs of eyes staring intently at me. It was a bit unnerving. But I didn't have time to notice.

I was pulled into a tight bear hug, very much against my will, and very much tighter than I liked.

This was because I was once again glomped by Eiji. Intentionally I assumed this time.

Dang he was fast. Had it not been for my training, I would have not have had time to even blink before he was on me.

I stiffened instinctively, but allowed him to hug me tight enough to crush my ribs while he kept up a steady stream of greetings.

"Hoi, hoi! My name is Eiji Kikumaru! I'm so glad to meet you Juko-chan! You can call me Eiji." He stepped back but still had his hands on my shoulders as he bent his legs so that we were at eye level. "Have you been taking care of Tezuka for us? How is he? We've been so worried!"

My face was blank, as was my mind. I just couldn't keep up with his rapid train of thought, which I was sure, must have been directly attached to his mouth.

And, did he just call me Juko-chan?

I slowly wrapped my arms around his back and patted him a little, trying to tell him that the hug was very, very, very _over. _I didn't think that it was working all that well. I needed to get out of his tight grip. It made me very uncomfortable to have him this close. I mean, I had my chest wrapped, but what if he felt the wraps under my clothes. If I could hear my ribs snapping, then he was most certainly close enough to feel things that I wished to remain secret.

I saved by the tennis member with what looked like a swim cap on his head and two strange tendrils hanging down in front. He must have noticed my face turning blue because he was frantically waving his arms and talking just as quickly as Eiji. Though whether it was to Eiji, himself, or me I couldn't quite tell.

"Eiji! He can't breath. What will happen if he is hurt? He's Tezuka's only hope! We'll never make it to high school level nationals. What will this do to the team? We'll have no captain. Morale will drop! And then we'll all separate and never talk to each other again!" His arms' moved more and more agitatedly as he (for lack of a better way to say it) _spazzed out _towards the end of his self-induced seizure. For a grand finale, he fainted in a pool of twitching nerves and sweat from worry.

So much for my savior.

I guessed I was on my own.

Trying to interrupt Eiji's endless stream of greetings with much, _much, _too much enthusiasm, I cleared my throat and tried to emulate Tezuka for a few moments.

"Eiji."

He stopped talking to me, probably anticipating an enthusiastic return of his greetings, which would blossom into a beautiful friendship.

I didn't need to tell _you _that he was wrong.

"Get. Off. Me." I said stiffly.

I was a little worried that he would be hurt by the frankness of my statement. I wanted to start out on the right foot with the people who could, very possibly, be Ryoma's only friends.

He jumped back with a big smile and gave me a victory sign, before noticing Oishi, still twitching on the ground.

"Oishi! Oishi! Speak to me!" He shouted, as he frantically tried to resuscitate his teammate.

I was pretty sure that I had worried needlessly. It looked as though I would need a jackhammer to get _anything,_ much less insults into Eiji's head.

Tezuka and the rest of the team members stood around the ensuing chaos, acting as though nothing was awry, which was…concerning to say the least. Was this…normal?

A glance at my brother whose non-chalant attitude was at its most extreme at the moment, told me…yes, yes this was _very _normal.

And I thought that _I_ had had problems with _my _ team.

Tezuka proceeded with the introductions.

"This is Kawamura Takashi. He was a regular on our team in middle school at Seigaku."

"Hoi! Tezuka!" Eiji whined. Apparently he was done waking up Oishi. Not that anyone could have slept through Eiji's frantic screamings for long. "You left out _everything!_"

He gleefully, bounced (yes, _bounced_) over to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

Dang it. My plastered smile returned to its usual place. I thought I had just gotten rid of him.

Harumph.

My arms crossed. The only outward sign of my frustration, unless you counted the smile on my face that shone with fakeness.

I could already tell that Eiji would be my undoing. For one thing, he kept touching me. For another, I didn't imagine him to be much of a secret keeper, so if he did accidentally figure something out, he wouldn't have the common sense to keep it to himself.

While I was considering all this, Eiji kept talking, I was guessing about Kawamura, as he hung off my shoulder.

"He used to be on the tennis team, but now he works at his dad's nationally famous one and only KAWAMURA SUSHI! In fact, we're going to take Tezuka there right now. You should come!" He stopped to take a breath and then whispered in my ear. "But don't eat any of Fuji's, it's got wasabi in it."

I looked at Fuji to see his usual half-crescent eyes and mouth, both smiling whimsically at me. He looked innocent enough. And that was what worried me.

"That's Fuji nya! He's our resident tensai." Eiji went on with the introductions, and then leaned into my ear again, "But he can be really scary sometimes."

I looked at Fuji again. This time his smile seemed to emanate a sort of creepy aura that screamed dangerous. Definitely going to have to watch out for him.

I didn't have much time to dwell on it however, as Eiji's extremely short attention span had him continuing the introductions, whether I was paying attention or not.

"And this is Inui Sadaharu! He's our data tennis player." Once again, Eiji ended the introduction by leaning in to whisper in my ear. "He knows _everything._"

Sure enough, even as Eiji was talking, I had already noticed that Inui had been scrawling furiously in his notebook. Well, I supposed that I was a new person, so he was going to have to take my height, weight, name…gender. This could get messy too. So far out of the three teammates I've met, all of them reeked of danger. If Inui kept too close an eye on me and was as nerdy (I mean smart, really I do…sort of) as he looked then he could figure it out in a heartbeat. This could be bad.

Tezuka, who looked a little perturbed at Eiji's whispered commentaries to me, tried to take over the introductions.

"This is Oishi Shuic –"

"This is my best pal Oishi! We've been partners, since…" Eiji pulled his arm away from my shoulders to count on his fingers as he looked perplexedly up at the sky.

Well, it was a valiant effort on Tezuka's part but it seemed that Eiji was just as dense as I had imagined him to be. He had just reached his 10th finger and looked at them, confused, as though he didn't know what to do now that he had run out.

After rapidly looking from one hand to another for quite some time, he put his hands down and beamed at me, "A really long time!"

The fake smile on my face cracked as I tried to control the urge to twitch in my left eye.

I looked over at Tezuka, expecting him to be having similar problems, and then I remembered that I was talking about Tezuka, who had the emotions of a brick wall. Though, it wasn't as though he wasn't perceptive. That much I could tell from our plane ride. But he wasn't exactly a big warm fuzzy teddy bear of mushy-gushy feelings either. Heck, I couldn't even imagine him smiling.

So I was very much surprised to see a hint of amusement in his eyes, though his facial expression had not changed from its normal look of infuriating superiority.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Eiji, who was gone.

The two members that Tezuka had sentenced to laps were speeding towards us without taking their eyes off of each other. As they came closer to the group I expected them to slow down but if anything, they sped up, and then I realized why their stares were so intense. They were racing. And we were all about to get run over.

Eiji, obviously anticipating the fact hat we were about to get trampled had jumped right in front of them to stop them. Or at least that's what I thought he went over there to do. My mind changed when his demeanor changed to greet them with open arms and a ridiculous looking smile.

"Hoi, hoi! And who will win? The viper, or Mom–"

And then they knocked him over.

Did I already mention that he was dense? And I mean like really, really dense. To think he was egging them on…._right while he was standing right in front of them. _

Tezuka's and my eye slightly twitched in unison. Hmm, maybe he did show some outward signs, if only frustration.

Unphased, he proceeded with the introductions as Eiji lay sprawled on the floor.

Actually the only time he had looked concerned was when Eiji was getting on his nerves. Apparently members falling on the ground and going unconscious was a common occurrence.

That worried me a bit.

"This is Momoshiro Takeshi, and Kaidoh Kaoru. Both are second years at Oshiro high."

Momoshiro flashed me a smile, "Nice to meet you Jukodo-san!" He then eyed my bag. "You wouldn't happen to have any food in there, would you?" He said as he crept over to me to loom over my backpack.

I was about to move away, as the contents of the bag would most definitely expose me when Kaidoh pushed him away from the bag.

"Baka! Don't look in his stuff, you immature idiot!"

"Say that to my face mamushi!"

"That was your face, though with a face like yours it's pretty hard to tell fssshhhh!"

I rolled my eyes as yet another argument ensued for about 5 minutes before Tezuka shot them a look that made them both quiet down and look at him sullenly like scolded children.

I smiled a little to myself, he really was like a father to them.

"And this, is Echizen Ryoma. He is a freshman on the Oshiro high team."

Ryoma gave me a bored glance, not even bothering to give me a once-over and tipped his cap a bit as though he was acknowledging the fact that I existed and I should be grateful to even get that much recognition from him.

My initial joy at finally seeing him again clashed with my irritation at the look he was giving me. That was NOT an okay look to give to your big brother–erm sister. It was time for some sibling pounding time. But on the plus side, he didn't recognize me. Actually the triumph of him not recognizing me also clashed with the sadness that my own brother did not know me well enough to recognize me in this disguise. Even Tezuka had seen through it in his subconscious. What could I say, I was just a big pot of confused emotions.

I gave him a half-smile in acknowledgement, being careful to keep my gaze even.

I don't think he even noticed. His arrogant little face was stuck in a Ponta.

He was going to die.

Interrupting me from my reverie of all the terrible things that I was going to bring on Ryoma, was Kawamura who seemed to be blazing a path to the airport exit. He was shouting something overly loudly in English that….made absolutely no sense at all.

The other regulars were following him from a distance, except Momo and Kaidoh who from the looks of it, racing again. Eiji suddenly sprung up from his comatose position on the floor as though nothing had happened while his longtime partner Oishi chased him with a roll of bandages.

My look of dumb-foundedness must have been very apparent as Ryoma looked at me apathetically and said, "Mada, mada dane Jukodo-senpai." And then trailed away slowly after the other members.

Oh, he was _definitely_ going to die.

Kawamura sushi _was_ _sooooooooooo good. _Or maybe it was just because I hadn't had _real_ Japanese sushi in such a long time. Regardless, I was slowly chewing on a shrimp sushi, savoring the taste of real sushi rice and properly prepared seaweed completely ignoring the chaos that was ensuing behind me.

Okay that was a lie. A really big lie. Though the sushi was transporting me to a place so wonderful I wasn't even sure that I wouldn't give Ryoma away right now for just another piece, my ears were pricked to what was happening to said brother behind me.

I was sitting on a barstool between Tezuka and Fuji. I had tried to avoid sitting next to the tensai but he had somehow just edged closer the whole night until he had trapped me between himself and Tezuka. So I just participated in the night's festivities by ingesting most of the sushi that Tezuka and I were supposed to share. I would have stolen from Fuji, but I had remembered Eiji's whispered warnings about wasabi and contented myself with swiping more from Tezuka.

And as I pretended to gorge myself, okay so I _did _gorge myself, but most people, while they're doing it, aren't very aware like I was, I watched Fuji out of the corner of my eye. His sushi remained untouched the whole of dinner, and it wasn't for lack of wasabi. I could see the nasty green mush sticking up way past the top of the sushi roll. His eyes were simply open as he unabashedly observed me.

I kept a close watch on him, and his eyes never left me even as we walked out of Kawamura sushi.

The tennis team seemed in a jovial mood, even Tezuka and Ryoma who had the smallest hint of a smile playing on his lips.

I turned to them and announced, "I need to take Tezuka to the hospital," to the tennis regulars, adding "you're welcome to join us if you want." In the hopes that Ryoma would decide to join us and I could corner him. I was getting pretty impatient about meeting him as me, not a rogue agent, not a team leader, and definitely not a poser therapist named Jukodo Ryuu, me.

Tezuka threw me a disapproving glance. I could kind of tell his facial expressions enough to figure out what he was trying to say. I supposed that he didn't want to show them any weakness. Well, he was just going to have to deal with it, because I was pretty sure that he did _not_ want to deal with me, if I was denied. Not that he knew how troublesome that I could be…yet.

Unfortunately for me, everyone, including Fuji who was making me more and more uneasy, by the moment, was interested in going. Well, everyone but Ryoma, but I didn't need to worry about that because the one called Momo was dragging him along anyways.

I smiled knowingly. Oh, I would get him alone. And it would not be a pretty sight for that cocky little brother of mine hehehehe.

At the hospital, I was running up a whirlwind around the regulars and the doctors as Tezuka sat calmly and ever stoically on the bed. I had to find out whether or not the tumor was, well, a tumor. I was fairly certain it was, but I decided to run tests just to be sure. Strange anomalies have occurred where x-rays only show abnormalities that were unharmful and yet very odd and rare. I was holding out hope that it was just an abnormal growth from birth…or something.

As I ran around, the regulars, who just couldn't seem to hold still, first messed with each other, made a few of the nurses faint, and then slowly dispersed. Momo, Kaidoh, and Kawamura were the first to leave. The first two, were actually kicked out, mainly due to the fact that they were arguing so loudly that they had awakened a man out of his 10-year coma. Kawamura, wanting to avoid trouble had left shortly afterwards, followed by the rest of the tennis team in a slow trickle.

Finally, only Fuji, Oishi, and Ryoma were the only ones left. Fuji was watching Tezuka with obvious concern as he also watched me warily out of the corner of his eye. Ryoma, was surprisingly still at the hospital. Not quite as surprisingly, he was fast asleep in one of the chairs in Tezuka's room, an empty ponta decorating the side table. The soft warm glow of the lamp fell on him, it would have been a perfect picture…had drool not been making it's way down his chin to his shirt and the fact that he was an annoying, cocky freshman.

I looked at the clock, which read 11:43.

Ryoma should probably get home. I didn't want his, or my parents or our parents I guess, to worry about him. I walked over to the spot where he lay, not thinking about the watchful eyes of Fuji processing my look of tenderness towards Ryoma. I shook him lightly and led a half conscious Ryoma out of the room.

We made it to the elevator, Ryoma leaning heavily on me, as I didn't think he was one of those cheery people when it came to waking up. Ryoma blinked his eyes a couple of times and it looked like he was starting to figure out where he was. He looked down at me through half-lidded eyes, sleepily like he wasn't quite all there yet.

"One-san?" he murmured.

_Pause._

_Awkward pause._

_Awkwarder pause._

My normally cat-like reflexes froze up as my body refused to move at the speed that my mind was going. Needless to say, Ryoma and I, frozen in front of the elevator doors, were attracting quite a crowd of spectators.

Suddenly, my mind snapped back into the moment and I hurriedly pushed Ryoma into the elevator and flashed the gathering crowd my most brilliant, innocent, I-am-definitely-not-up-to-anything smile at the people who continued to gawk at us and waved as the elevator door shut us off from them.

Ryoma, seemed not have had the same time snap that I had just experienced and was still frozen in shock. Apparently, my turning up was a bigger surprise than I had bargained for.

"Ryoma?" I said firmly, trying to bring him back to reality, "it's me. Azumi."

"Az-az-az-azu-a-a-azu," he stuttered while still being stuck frozen in shock.

Being the annoyed, extremely impatient older sister that I was, I pulled back my arm to help him snap out of it with a well-deserved slap to the face. However, as I drew my hand to strike him, the elevator doors opened revealing a rather harried looking doctor. Of course someone WOULD interrupt. Extremely irritated, I slowly turned to face him, hoping the sheer fury that was exuding out of my eyes would burn him to a cinder on the ground.

Unfortunately, this didn't happen. However, he managed to get the hint and after shrinking to the smallest height he could manage, he shrunk out of the elevator as I smiled my other most brilliant smile, the one that was much less fake and expressed, a nod that the recipient had just been spared a painful and awful death. Once again, the elevator door closed as his shocked face slowly disappeared behind the thick metal doors.

Turning back to Ryoma, I noticed to my great annoyance that he was indeed still frozen, stuttering my name, or at least the first two syllables of it. I don't think that he had quite gotten past that point yet.

I brought my hand forward, to give him a resounding slap on the cheek.

He was frozen for a moment and then shook himself a bit.

"One-san?" he looked at me questioningly.

"Yeah…" I murmured kind of sheepishly. I was a bit ashamed to be caught cross-dressing by my little brother. Plus he didn't exactly know the details in my line of work. Now that I thought about it, this situation just didn't look good from any angle that Ryoma could look at it from.

Looking back up at Ryoma, I saw him looking at me amusedly.

"I didn't know you were that type of person One-san." He remarked as he chuckled a bit from under his cap.

_?!?!?!_

This was most definitely not the reunion reaction that I had anticipated. More joyous hugs and tears and less of the skepticism and noticing of my cross-dressing.

"Are you doing this to get closer to buchou? You know, he doesn't like that type of thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure he doesn't like any type of thing, except of course tennis."

_!?!?!_

Man, did he not have this right. And if I wasn't so appalled at what he was accusing me of, I might have had the strength to actually stop making gawking and telling him so.

"Well, whatever you think One-san. I didn't think that he would be your type either…"

Time snap.

"I DO NOT LIKE TEZUKA-SAN! AND FURTHER MORE I AM ONLY CROSS-DRESSING TO KEEP MY NECK!"

Expectedly, he just shrugged as though he didn't really care.

"Ryoma, really you have to listen to me. You can't tell Obaa-san and Okaa-san that I'm here. There's a reason for all of this, I promise."

The elevator doors true to form opened once again, this time revealing Fuji.

Drat. I hadn't been paying attention to what level the elevator was on. I guess that Fuji had decided to leave in the time that it had taken for Ryoma and I to traverse to the floor of the now frightened doctor and back to the intensive care unit.

The answer to why we were still in the elevator, me with a rather exasperated expression and Ryoma an amused smirk, was beyond me.

Fuji's smile slowly dropped from his face as he took in the situation. His eyes snapped open. After a few very uncomfortable moments staring, his normal cheery façade appeared once again on his face, though there was a menacing glint in that eerily present smile.

He stepped into the elevator, calmly, but with an icy air that made me want to bolt. But then again, a lot of things made me want to do that. When I was on the run from a rather formidable enemy (i.e. the most precise and lethal team of assassins who happened to know everything about me), I tended to be a bit skittish.

"Jukodo-san, Echizen," he said cheerily.

Then, quite suddenly, his eyes sprung open and he stepped unabashedly, menacingly forward.

"What are you two doing still on the elevator?"

**Questions? Comments? Complaints? Leave them here, it's the only way this is going to get fixed!**


	10. Into the light

**Okay, so three weeks isn't a great response time, but it's a LOT better than 2 months, right? Right? Don't worry I'll do better next time, I hope. Plus, just in case you haven't noticed, the chapters are getting a lot longer. In fact, thiss one was going to be at least 3000 more words or so, but then it'd never get published haha. Anyways, thanks for putting up with my erratic postings! **

**StelraEtnae: I know! I was SO excited for her to get to meet her...him...it. I don't really know anymore haha. Thanks for reviewing :)**

**.miss: hehe sorry for the long wait....life kind of caught up with me. Well, that and I also am probably one of the worst procrastinators you have met in your entire life. Ever. Even though you haven't met me. That's just how bad it is haha. Keep reviewing!**

**NAO-chan33: Yeah, if I knew a guy like him, he'd drive me crazy cause I couldn't hide anything. Anyways, thanks fo the review!**

**Fii aka Ficchan/AkimotoAyumu: Your new screen name almost threw me off! Thanks for signing it :) and yes, you are indeed a faithful reader for a not-quite-so faithful writer. I don't deserve you, or any of my reviewers for that matter. Thanks for stopping by to review anyways :)**

Azumi POV

Um...

It seemed as though I was getting caught more and more often off of my guard. This was not acceptable.

Had I just been on the run, it may not have been so bad but people had sacrificed themselves for me already. The stakes were already set too high for me to slip up even once.

Mochizuki and Koga were being held somewhere and it was because of me.

I turned to face Fuji as I straightened up and gave him a coy smile; "Ryoma woke up a little more on the way down and wanted to get his Ponta from the bed stand before he left."

I am a good liar. A fact that I was not particularly proud of. More than that, I was a frequent liar, which just compounded the problem that my conscience continued to nag me with.

With that, I put my hand on Ryoma's arm and nudged him out of the elevator. I kept my eyes locked with Fuji's as we brushed past him. His exuded suspicion as the bright blue shade of his eyes flashed at me, while mine I kept innocent and totally oblivious to the confrontation that was taking place between us.

I was sure that my little charade was in vain. Fuji's suspicious eyes gleamed, completely unconvinced. It was necessary to keep up regardless. As long as I kept it up, he could not confront me about something I had "not done". Mind games were a tricky thing, and many times, more dangerous than the physical kind.

When I was far enough away from him, I turned my head away to what was in front of me. The strands of hair from my wig were shading my eyes as I kept my head down and the gaze of Fuji's eyes disappeared behind the cold elevator doors as they slowly slid shut. Somehow, I could still feel the accusations they stabbed at my back, even after the doors were closed.

My lips were pursed as I strode at a faster pace than I probably needed to, trying to escape the feeling of guilt for both lying and almost blowing my cover…_again._ Ryoma looked at me with an expression of both confusion and concern.

But I couldn't concern myself with him anymore. My focus had slipped as soon as I had let my guard down. No matter how much I had wanted to see my brother, or how much he meant to me, I was going to have to put him and my feelings aside for the greater good of something else. I had most certainly let my anticipation of seeing him blind me. I couldn't let it happen again.

I ignored Ryoma's questioning eyes and as soon as we went into Tezuka's room, I handed him his Ponta and began to check the chart at the end of Tezuka's bed, making it clear that we were done talking for now. However, so that he would not misunderstand and think me angry with him, I turned my back to Tezuka and made a series of hand signals indicating that I wanted to meet with him later by the temple bell at 2am tomorrow morning. I got a subtle nod from him, as he pretended to sip his empty Ponta so that he could incline his head backwards and then back forwards without any suspicion, not that we had to be quite this covert with only Tezuka in the room (though he was exceptionally sharp), but Ryoma knew me when I got in this mode and he took more caution, probably just to make this overly paranoid twin sister happy.

I was a tad overprotective of him and though he was definitely more than capable of protecting himself, I wanted to ensure his safety even when we were both very young and I was first at the academy. When I came back home for visits, I gave him a crash course on a little self-defense (just the basics, he was too busy training for tennis for much else), and hand signals (though we ended up using those more to communicate in secret in front of our parents and giggling than actually doing anything top secret). If I had really been smart, I would have left him a way to contact me, but alas alack, I wasn't a genius at everything, like tennis…and the transformation of exponential functions as a function of negative properties. Don't ask.

Anyways, Ryoma strolled nonchalantly out of the room as I checked more of Tezuka's medical information and watched him leave out of the corner of my eye. If you ask me, Ryoma probably would have been more suited for the program than I was. He was extraordinarily athletic, could act cool under the most extreme situations, and was very good at neutralizing attacks, even if it was just on the tennis court. In any case, it proved that he could think on his feet (literally) rather well, which was the quintessential element to every good agent.

Tezuka must have noticed that I was staring off into space, as I had been looking at the same patient chart for 5 minutes and gave a polite cough, probably an indication that he wanted me to finish up so that we could get out of the hospital and go home.

I was definitely all for that idea.

I gave him an apologetic smile and dashed out of the room to make my rounds to all the departments I had visited regarding Tezuka's illness.

(Tezuka POV)

I watched him rush out of the room, no doubt to concern himself with all the problems I was causing.

I gave a small sigh and sat up in my bed.

I didn't approve of this situation.

Jukodo reentered the room, put some x-rays up on the lighting board and stared at them for about 10 seconds before running back out of the room.

I hated feeling so helpless. Last time I had come to the treatment center, that had not been an issue as Hannah Essenheimer (episode 130-131) was hardly ever sober long enough to actually care for me. The rest of the treatment staff however, made up for the marginal help from her, but they hardly hovered over me like Jukodo insisted.

But there was another thing that made me uneasy. I prided myself on being able to see things that others couldn't. It was the essential skill every leader needed. The ability to see potential, and exactly what a person needed to be put through to reach it. I could see that Jukodo-san was a kind, hard-working person, but something seemed off. Fake. Even when I looked into his eyes for an answer, it seemed as though there was a film between me and anything real about him. It made me a little restless. I could not read him at all, and the brief times that emotion was present on his face, it was of anger.

I sighed again and swung my legs over the side of the bed in order to get up. I closed the door and the curtain around the bed and changed back into my regular clothes.

Fuji seemed to be uneasy about Jukodo as well.

Flashback to ten minutes ago

Fuji stood up and walked to my bedside as the door swung closed behind Jukodo-san and Ryoma as he leaned on her shoulder.

"Tezuka, how are you feeling?" he asked.

Fuji would never ask this kind of question to me. He knew that I wouldn't respond. How I felt was pointless to the situation. He was just beating around the bush. He had something to say and just didn't want to introduce it abruptly.

"What is the problem Fuji?"

His ever-present smile widened by a little.

"Saa, you know me so well Tezuka." The smile then faded and with the fading of the smile, his eyes almost always opened. It meant he was serious.

"What do you think of Jukodo-san, Tezuka?"

I thought for a moment. I didn't really know much about him. He never really showed emotion aside from on the airplane. Other than that, he had been the model doctor, never frazzled or concerned, just there. But on the plane, he really had opened up, though fear will make all one's emotions come out…

Actually as I thought about it, his lack of emotion up until this point should have been disconcerting. I had been preoccupied. I furrowed my eyebrows; I had let my guard down. He had not until on the plane and even then I could not explain some of his reactions, like to the tennis ball and the flashes of anger I would see cross his face, but would be gone so fast that I wondered if they had been there at all.

Fuji was sitting waiting patiently when I turned to him.

"He has exhibited very little genuine emotion, so I know very little. I would not jump to conclusions if I were you Fuji."

"Saa…be careful Tezuka, he's not what he seems. I won't tell you anymore of my suspicions until I can verify them for myself. But, don't let your guard down." He ended with a smile, as he mockingly intoned my life motto. "As if I need to remind you."

"Ah." I responded as Fuji got up to leave.

I was going to have to keep a closer eye on Jukodo Ryuu.

End Flashback

I stood up and reopened the curtain to see Jukodo moving about the room, packing up the last of our belongings.

I moved to help him and he shot me a glare as he put down what he was doing to take the things that I was trying to pack out of my hands and placing them on the side as he pushed me back into a chair.

"Tezuka-san, I know that being served is against your nature, but you have to rest your elbow. And that's a doctor's orders." He finished with a smile.

But I didn't trust the grin. I was sure that he wanted me to rest, but something was going on beneath the surface that he tried to hide behind his graceless smiles.

(Fuji POV)

The doors of the elevator shut even as I continued to stare at the disappearing back of Jukodo. Or at least someone who claimed to be a Jukodo Ryuu.

I felt the elevator begin to descend. My eyes opened.

_Saa, he was alone with Echizen in the elevator. At the airport as well, he gave special attention to Echizen, if not subtly. Like how he stiffened every time his name is mentioned. And then on the elevator…those expressions held some stories. There is something going on here. Something big. He's also a very smooth liar from the way he quickly regained his composure and came up with a semi-plausible story on the elevator. But, his eyes though they were oblivious almost issued me a challenge as he walked by. He could be trouble._

I closed my eyes again into half-crescents as I felt the elevator come to a shudder and then stop.

I contemplated waiting for Ryoma. From the looks of things he knew what was going on, or at least he was involved. But I didn't want to look like I was suspicious. Ryoma was pretty sharp and if he was involved, I didn't want him to clam up or warn Jukodo to be on his guard against me, well not more than he was already anyways.

There was a cafeteria, but the team had all just eaten, so stalling by ordering food might be a bit too suspicious. I did a quick swivel of the area and noticed a TV with a tennis match going on between the Wilson sisters. Not my favorite players in the world, but an ample enough excuse for me to wait for Echizen.

(Ryoma POV)

I headed down the hall back to the elevators.

One-san was back.

But why in the heck was she dressed like a boy? And Tezuka's trainer? Where _had _she been up until now anyways?

This was so annoying.

Why was she being so secretive? I never understood people like that, though One-san _had_ always kept her fair share of secrets I supposed.

But something big was happening.

I sipped my Ponta.

If I needed to know, she'd tell me, and it looked like she was going to anyways tonight. No need to get all worked up.

The elevator opened up to the lobby and I began to walk towards the doors.

"Saa, Echizen. The Australian Open is on. Care to watch for a bit?"

I turned to see Fuji in front of a TV on which the Wilson sisters were playing.

I kept walking.

"Mada, mada dane." I shrugged in reference to the Wilson sisters and began to head back towards the doors.

They were boring to watch.

"I'll walk with you then." Fuji's voice came from behind me.

I flinched a bit, I had some things that I wanted to sort out in my head, but really I didn't care.

"Sa, it's nice to have Tezuka back, isn't it Echizen?"

I shrugged.

"Though Jukodo-san said that he may have more than just arm trouble."

Interesting…maybe that's what One-san had wanted to talk to me about tonight. I would find out soon enough, no need to worry.

"Something about cancer, I think…" Fuji mused as he looked up without much look of concern.

I choked on my Ponta and I saw Fuji-senpai's smile widen just a little bit.

"Fuji-senpai?"

"Yes, I do believe that that's what Jukodo-san said."

"Mmm…" I acknowledged, a bit dazed. Stupid sister, she could have at least told me that much.

"I don't know, he's only 17 though, he could be wrong."

Fuji sure was talkative. It was almost as though he was trying to provoke a response from me…as if to confirm a suspicion he had, or just find out information in general.

"Mmm" If that was the case, I would give as little response as I could.

"What do you think of Jukodo-san?"

"There's nothing to say."

"Sa…" Fuji intoned.

We then fell into companionable silence.

If Fuji had been trying to make me give something away about my sister, he had failed miserably.

I resisted the urge to give him a "Mada, mada dane" for the effort as we parted ways.

(Fuji POV)

"Fuji! You're home so late."

I heard my sister Yumiko shout from the kitchen.

"I made some raspberry pie because Yuta said he would be stopping by.' She said as she held up her pie proudly and gave me a genial smile.

"Sa, you are such a good cook One-san." I admonished as I sauntered into the kitchen. "Yuta's really stopping by/"

"Do you think that he's going to miss out on his favorite?"

I smiled a bit more and shook my head. "I guess not."

I sat down at the counter and began thinking once again about my walk home with Ryoma.

He definitely knew something and he wasn't going to tell anyone, which was unusual for Ryoma. He may not talk much, so there was a lot that people didn't know just by default but when asked directly, he would normally answer honestly. Especially when it came to what he thought about people. Like how he held disdain for Atobe, chided Sakuno on the smallest of things and made blatant comments about people that were around him that most sensible people would keep to themselves.

"_What do you think of Jukodo-san?" _

"_There's nothing to say."_

Nothing to say, hmm? Someone who was normally forthright would only give such an answer if they wanted to give out no information whatsoever. Especially when asked by a senpai. Now who could Ryoma value enough, or what kind of secret would make him curb his nature to be blunt?

And another thing. Why would a world-class therapy center hire a 17 year old, albeita genius 17 year old.

I decided to call Inui. By now he had probably done at least some preliminary research on this Jukodo Ryuu.

**Ring.**

**Ring.**

"Mushmushi, this is Inui Sadaharu."

"Sa, Inui. I was wondering if you had done any research about Tezuka's new trainer."

"Mmm, as a matter of fact I was just pondering over that same person. The data I found was most peculiar."

"How so?"

"Everyone has something about themselves on the internet. Even if one is totally incompetent when it comes to technology, you will in all likelihood be put on the internet at sometime by someone else, whether it be accidental or purposeful." Inui paused and I could just imagine him adjusting his glasses, as he normally did when he was perplexed. "Considering Jukodo-san's age, he should be quite prevalent by at least self-promotion, but all the Jukodo Ryuus I have found have nothing to do with the one we know."

"Sa…"

I contemplated the implications of what Inui had said for a moment.

"How long have you been searching for information?" I inquired.

" Ever since I got home, which was approximately 4 hours ago."

4 hours. That was normally enough time for Inui to find out the entire history of a small country in more detail than most history books.

"And you're sure he is not mentioned or photographed anywhere on the internet."

"Not even a facebook page."

"What do you think about him Inui?"

"Hmm…from how he holds himself and how we have seen him interact, I'd assume that he is who he says he is. But there is a 0% chance that a child prodigy that graduated from medical school at 16 would not be mentioned. There is a 100% chance that the school to which Jukodo-san went to would boast about him in order to attract more students. For now, he is a complete unknown."

"Thanks Inui. Let me know if you find anything."

"I will. Ja."

"Ja."

I closed the phone.

I didn't particularly care for unknowns hanging around my close friends.

Ryoma trusted him though, which indicated that he was not a threat, or at least an imminent one. But I did know for sure that Jukodo was not who he said he was, and any liar was a threat. Ryoma also knew that he was lying. If Ryoma hated cheaters in just the game of tennis, why would he put his faith in someone who deceived everyone around them by literally pretending to be someone else?

He must have been someone really important to Ryoma…but who could hold that much significance?

"One-san, do you have that raspberry pie?"

I turned and saw Yuta with his usual sour expression which Yumiko and I always paid no mind to. He was our brother after all.

…

Brother…

A sibling?

(Azumi POV)

We stepped out of the hospital shuttle in front of what I presumed to be Tezuka's house. Well, Tezuka's grandparent's house.

I grabbed all the luggage before Tezuka could get up, or else I'm sure he would haul the luggage until his arm fell off.

Tezuka got out of the car and I could see a cross look flash across his face and I felt a slight smile threaten to show up on my face, but I suppressed it amply well I was pretty sure.

We walked up to the door of his house and he raised his hand to knock.

Did he really have to knock on _his own_ door? He was the epitome of politeness. It was almost kind of irritating. Kind of like his face. Ugh.

The door swung open to a very cheery looking older woman and a very…um…uncheery looking man. He must have been where Tezuka's sternness came from.

"Kunimitsu! I'm so glad to have you back home!" the lady at the door said as she ensnared him in a hug…, which he tolerated. Hmm, that was surprising.

"And you are…?"

I was interrupted from my ponderings when I realized she was waiting for a response…from me.

"Oh, erm, Jukodo Ryuu." I said with a smile and this one was real. I had a feeling that this lady knew the most about Tezuka. It would be interesting to learn more. "I'll be Tezuka's trainer and personal medical assistant during my stay here."

"Oh! You are so welcome Jukodo-san to be here. I'll show you to the guest room so you can put those heavy bags down." She extended an arm into the house, motioning for us to come in.

"Thank you for allowing me to stay at your house." I said with a small bow before entering the house.

I smiled at Tezuka's grouchy looking grandfather and preceded to follow his grandmother to my room.

Their house wasn't big, even by Japanese standards, which surprised me. Someone rich enough to send their child off to a country halfway across the world at a world-class therapy center I thought would have a rather large house.

She led me to the only hallway in the house and stopped at the door at the end.

"This will be your room Jukodo-san. Make yourself at home and if you need anything I'll just be out in the kitchen."

"Thank you." I said with another small bow.

I opened the door to see…a closet. And we're not just talking like a rich people walk-in closet that could fit enough clothes to outfit all the penguins in Antarctica and maybe a few narwhals. This closet was more like for the hobo down the street with one jacket and two pairs of boots, maybe. I saw that a low bed that was a cross between a bamboo mat and a mattress had been wedged into the space and took up all the floor space. I take it back, there's no way you could fit more than a jacket and _one_ pair of boots in that space.

I sighed and began to unpack my belongings. I stuffed all the things that I would really prefer people not to find under the bed.

I had just begun to fold my clothes and place them on the end of the bed when Tezuka turned into the hallway.

He looked at me, took one look at the closet, and his eyebrows met when he observed the bed, as well as the fact that I seemed to be trying to unpack a suitcase onto said bed.

He turned around abruptly and I could hear a low voice and the warm voice of his grandmother's conversing.

I continued to unpack until I saw Tezuka round the corner once more.

"Jukodo-san, you will be staying in my room."

I looked at him, perplexed.

"And let you sleep in the closet? I don't think so. I'm much shorter than you and will fit much better." I stated defiantly as I continued to unpack. Really, the notion was quite ridiculous. He'd never recover from anything all cramped up in this amount of space.

"I won't be sleeping in the closet either Jukodo-san."

What? Than where was he going to sleep? The couch? Also not conducive to the recovery of a sick patient.

"We'll both be staying in my room."

…

…

…

Wait…

What did he just say?

He didn't wait for my response and simply walked into his room as though the topic was not up for discussion.

Well, that was too bad because _I _wanted to discuss the topic.

I walked over to the doorway to his room and peered in to see him starting to unpack.

I knocked on the doorframe and walked in quite ready to vehemently protest the new sleeping arrangements. If I let this happen, Ryoma would never let me live it down.

However, before I could even open my mouth, he spoke up.

"We can bring the bed over from the closet. There is space over there," he indicated pointing to the opposite wall underneath his window.

"Um…Tezuka-san this is very kind of you bu-"

"You can place your clothes in the closet on the hangers, I never use them."

"Tezuk-"

"The bathroom is just down the hall to your left and there are two sinks. I only use the left one."

"Excuse me, um, Tezuka-san, I'm quite satisfied with the closet." I said firmly.

He turned to me, "There is no reason to put up a guest in such inhospitable conditions." Stating, just as immovably.

"I prefer a little bit of privacy." I said with a steely edge. He was going to be hard to budge.

"Then we'll put up a screen down the middle of the room."

"What if you snore?"

"Earplugs. And I don't snore."

"What if _I _snore?"

"Earplugs."

"What if I decide to stay up late and want to keep the light on?"

"Booklight." He countered as he tossed one at me.

I was running out of excuses. I couldn't say that I wanted more room. His room, even cut in half was more than three times the size of the closet. I couldn't argue that I was uncomfortable being um…undressed in the same room as someone else considering I was a doctor and supposed to be used to it.

Drat.

I opened my mouth again to protest but not having anything to say, I closed it again and slunk out of the room to go get the bed from the closet.

This was a bad idea.

I lugged the bed into Tezuka's room with a bit of trouble and deicded that I'd better figure out what our game plan for the next few weeks would be. Assuming I stuck around that long.

"So, Tezuka, we need to discuss the arrangements for how I'm going to be able to accompany you throughout the day. Considering we don't know the extent of your condition, and I don't' trust you at all to lay off the work on your elbow. I'm going to have to be with you throughout the school day." I said as I continued to try and drag the bed as far away from Tezuka's as possible.

"I have talked it over with the administration."

Wow, he was on top of things. As the trainer…I probably should have done that. Or at least thought about it before the night before, but I had a lot on my mind.

"They understand the significance that you hold over my future and how I may be able to promote their school if I turn pro so they have no problem with you coming. However, because of your age and the inappropriateness of having a trainer present at all times in a classroom, they have requested your presence as a student." He said with absolutely no inflection in his voice.

"So I'm like an undercover therapist?" I said playfully. In my mind I was trying to count the number of deceptions I was trying to pull off all at once. I was a girl dressed as a boy who was an agent posing as a therapist who was 17 when I was really 15 who was going undercover at a school as a student when really I was a therapist. Even _I_ was getting confused.

"Ah"

He walked over to his closet, which unfortunately was on his side of the partitioned room and pulled out some old uniforms.

"Here." He said as he handed my the uniforms. "We can replace the first year pins with third year ones when we get to school."

Great, I was so unboy-like that I was the size of Tezuka as a first year. Though I had heard from Ryoma that he was extremely tall even in middle school, so maybe my size was okay. Maybe. Hopefully.

"Aside from that you will be the trainer consultant for the entire team."

I furrowed my eyebrows once again perplexed. From what Ryoma had said, both Oishi and Coach Ryuzaki were quite capable at taking care of injuries.

"Is a trainer needed?"

"No."

"Then…why am I being put on in such a role?"

"I don't want to attract attention to my physical state."

Ah, that made sense. He didn't want to alert anyone to the fact that he was in need of a personal 24-hour medical assistant. Prideful boy. Man. Guy. Thing. I couldn't quite categorize him yet along those lines. I'll bet he had requested me to be sent in a student so that he wouldn't have to be questioned about my specific duties concerning him.

The lights turned off and the only light left in the room was coming from a lamp on Tezuka's side of the room.

"Good-night Tezuka-san." I said cheerily.

"Ah, good-night."

I checked the time. 1:10am. I had to get going to the meeting place soon. I really hoped that Tezuka fell asleep before then.

(Mochizuki POV)

The stupid psychiatrist had finally stopped coming by to see and interrogate me. I think that between my complete lack of interest, and the fact that I figured out he hates the sound of fingernails on metal had gotten through to him though it had taken about 10 hours to do so. I had to give the guy kudos for being persistent. I wouldn't have to cut my fingernails for the next year or two I was pretty sure.

It had been one day since Koga and I had arrived back at Imei but I had yet to see her. I was pretty sure that she was going through the same thing. Imei had no solid evidence against us and were probably just stalling for time so that they could deliver a ludicrous accusation on us, we'd get a slap on the wrist, and then we'd be returned to our team. We just had to wait it out.

(Koga POV)

My eyes were dry.

Whether it be from the slow but steady stream of tears that ran down my cheeks or the fact that I was now scared to even blink, I didn't know. What I was waiting for I didn't know. Why I was trying…I was beginning to lose sight of.

It was inevitable. It was all my fault. They just had to wait it out.

**Please review! Yeah, I know it was a lot more just info instead of action this time, but a LOT is going to happen in the next chap so stay tuned! :)**


	11. Heartbeat

**Hey all! This is a semi-timely update so I won't apologize, well profusely anyways and this chapter is also kind of build-up so i will try to get the next one to you pronto. I won't make any promises though cause finals are next week and there is not an emoticon seriously freaked out enough to display my complete and utter petrified....ness i guess. AUUUGGGHHH! anyways, enough about me, here is another part of the story that keeps looking longer and longer the more I think about it.**

**Fii aka Ficchan: Wow, that sounds like a LOT of math. Have no fear, I completely understand. It's all good. Thanks for keeping up with me even though I have been....a little bit slow on the updating....*cough cough*...... oh! and haha, i ALWAYS end iwht a cliff hanger, got to keep you guys wanting more, right?**

**Stelra Etnae: I know, right? Tezuka, Inui, and Fuji are definitely some of the sharpest tools in the shed. In fact it may be OOC to make them not all figure it out at once haha. Thanks for the review :)**

**NAO-chan33: haha, thanks! i'm glad i made you laugh....almost haha. yeah this chapter doesn't quite get to her attending seigaku yet, but i'm going to get there for sure. i seem to spend a lot of time justifying the characters' actions so they don't seem OOC, but if i do it too much let me know. thanks for the review! :)**

Azumi POV

I was lying in my bed trying extremely hard to hear what was happening on the other side of the screen.

From what I could tell, he was asleep. But he was generally a quiet person (much to my dismay) usually so I didn't want to have to count on the lack of sound as m indication that he was asleep. It was too bad he _didn't_ snore. Now that would have been helpful.

I checked the time again for about the third time in the last minute and a half. 1:30am. I really had to get going.

The screen that divided our room was about 5 feet high so it didn't really actually provide much privacy. I just hoped that it was tall enough that from the lower position of his bed, he couldn't see the window from that particular angle. I took off my wig for the first time in days. Even though my hair was probably as oily and nasty as a piece of toast deep fat fried in bacon grease, it felt so good. I ripped off the hair attachments from around my eyebrows and sideburns, (which did not feel as good) and took out my contacts. I placed them in solution while I blinked my eyes a couple of times. It was so nice to be el natural again. I took my hair out of the tight French braids that had been pinned tightly to my head and shook my hair out.

I had done all of this sitting up in my bed which, thankfully, was sitting directly beneath the only window in the room. The window slid open smoothly and after scurrying to my clothes stash and grabbing another outfit, I leapt deftly out of the window landing lightly on the porch.

I shut the window, though not all the way and leapt off the porch into the night.

(Regular POV)

Ryoma sat on the side of the bell tower, one leg hanging off the side, the other bent out in front of him. He was sitting, watching the moon, drinking Ponta, and as usual…looking really bored.

He checked his watch. 1:57am.

Okay, so he was a bit anxious. Family was one of those things that was hard to control or know how to act around. Or at least that was the case for Ryoma. You had to admit, he had a pretty dysfunctional family. Samurai Nanjiroh was his dad. Enough said.

Not for long though because he heard a rustling in the grass to his left and he knew she had arrived.

If she had wanted to, she could have snuck up on him quietly and scared the wits out of him. She always used to approach him like that except once she had done it and more than Ryoma's wits had been scared out of him. He was the only person she bothered to deliberately make noise to announce her presence for. Needless to say, him and all his dry pairs of pants appreciated it greatly.

"Ry-chan!" she yelled as she hurled herself forward to tackle him off of the edge of the bell tower.

"Ite!" He shouted back much too late, putting his hands up to try (in vain) to stop the coming onslaught of his uber excited sister.

She crashed into him and he found himself on the ground being hugged rather ferociously. It kind of reminded him of the beginning of freshman year on the first day he had been reunited with all the seniors and Eiji had caught sight of him. Pure bubbly excitement followed by a bone-crushing hug. Falling to the ground didn't hurt much though as the bell tower, really wasn't much more than a pile of stones with a bell and a roof. It was more of a mound than a tower. But the hug was threatening to meld all his organs together.

"One-san," he managed to choke out.

"Hm?"

"You're crushing my Ponta."

She looked down and indeed, his Ponta was trapped underneath him. However, being annoyed that she was being told off at the sake of his soda, she pushed him away in order to scold him. He took a deep breath, glad to be able to breathe again, despite the scolding he was bond to receive from his elder sister.

"Now Ry-chan, you can't be putting the well-being of soda over the feelings of others. One of these days Ryoma, you're not going to able to get everyone licking the tops of your boots and…"

She trailed on, but Ryoma wasn't really listening. He kind of had a silly smirk on his face as he looked at her.

She kept going until she realized that Ryoma had only been smirking at her.

"Ry-chan, are you even listening to me!?" she demanded as she waved a hand in front of his face with a rather exasperated expression upon hers.

He chuckled a bit, "One-chan you're being silly." He tilted his head back to sip his Ponta, "Mada mada dane." He said condescendingly right before the Ponta met his lips.

But the Ponta never met his lips as it was swiped away by Azumi whose expression of exasperation grew more pronounced. He was sure that she would have started lecturing him again, had he not so rudely interrupted her lecture the first time.

Deliberately, she chugged the rest of his grape Ponta instead, with a smirk on her face the whole time.

It was his turn to scowl. Their eyes met and clashed as their icy stares collided, trying to freeze the other. And just as the glares were growing to their most intense, smirks began to grow before they were chuckling and the chuckle was followed by a small laugh until they were soon rolling on the grass laughing as loudly as they could.

Though they were siblings , and with siblings, rivalry was always present, they were also family to each other. Family that could always be turned to, and one of the only things in the whole world where "don't let your guard down" became absolute crap. A person with which, absolute confidence was mutually assured with no words or hand signals. You were just you and it was safest that way.

Soon the laughter died down and Ryoma and Azumi shared one of those priceless moments where they could just enjoy the company of each other without purpose other than the sheer joy of being near to one another.

Ryoma folded his hands behind his head as he gazed up at the stars.

"So, I'm guessing you're pretty curious as to why I'm here, huh?" Azumi began, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Mmm.."

"Well, you should first know that Imei high is just a front for a young spy in training center."

"One-san?"

"Yeah, I know, weird right? That's why they wanted the top tier of all the babies and stuff. It makes sense if you think about it. Every country wants super soldiers and this is the way Japan is trying to get it. Start early and beat the kids into emotionless monsters…" she closed her eyes for a moment, thinking, "most of us actually don't go on missions, as I said, it's just a training facility. Getting us ready for the big time you know? Kind of like uber intense, never-ending boot camp."

Ryoma lay in the grass, intently listening, but not bothering to interrupt. She was on a roll and his questions would get answered one way or another. Plus, even with Azumi, who he talked with the most of anyone, he couldn't really be considered very talkative.

"Everyone who goes to the school has a profile and are assigned a team from a very young age. Then, the team's performance is monitored and the teams normally get pretty mixed up until the supervisors are satisfied with every team's execution in most areas. My team was different, we gelled almost right away. And because of that, we became ruthlessly efficient. We weren't better at martial arts, hacking, or any of that hard stuff, we were just a single lethal unit and the headmaster," a steely glint passed through her eyes, "recognized it. He saw the potential of having children who could actually perform in the field. Who would ever suspect a child of being a spy? We were invaluable. We could gain access to countries and places that no trained agent could go, simply because we were below suspicion. So our team stayed together ever since I was 6 years old. No other team had ever been together from such a young age. I think that that's why we were different, we weren't separate agents, we were a team. No, we were friends."

Azumi stopped her story long enough to smile as she too, gazed up at the beauty of the stars.

"But, the headmaster didn't like that fact very much. I could tell when he started testing our loyalties to missions vs. our loyalties to each other. Agents cannot have bonds. Not even with each other. It poses a risk to operations." She snorted in disgust. "Did you know, that in the United States, they don't allow women to join the Navy SEALS because they believe that, that will make men act chivalrously and save the 'damsel' as opposed to sacrificing a comrade for the sake of a mission? It almost makes sense…"

Finally Ryoma chimed in, "I don't think so."

She looked at him.

"You were probably told that you have to give up the smaller good, for the greater good. Leave a teammate behind so that others can be saved. And sometimes a sacrifice may have to be done. But, that is not your choice to make. It never is." Ryoma continued. "Even in tennis, that's a principle that holds true. The moment, we believe that the ends justify the means, we've already lost. Akaya blasts people with tennis balls, resorts to violence. I could do the same thing and beat him, but that would make me no better than him. I've changed who I am and broken my own will. He's won, I have beaten myself."

Azumi lay speechless on the grass in the night. Then she smiled. He really had grown up. And of course, he would bring in tennis. It was his allegory for life. Typical.

"Hmmm…" she sighed contentedly as she lay back down in the grass.

"I'd have to agree with you. I've already chosen that path, but your words will keep me from wavering Ry-chan." She added teasingly.

He pulled down his hat farther over his eyes, "Mada mada dane One-san."

She just smirked and continued her story, "Anyways, the headmaster finally decided to put our loyalties to the ultimate test. He made me, the leader, choose between the good of the mission, or my closest friend's life…I chose him. And of course, he killed Tsuneo anyways," she spat out the words vehemently. "and then tried to have me killed as well."

She sat up.

"And in short, that is why I am here, Ry-chan. I was on the run and by mere happenstance disguised myself as a boy, and ended up as Tezuka-san's trainer." She finished.

"Mmm…" Ryoma, paused. "What about Tezuka-buchou?"

"What about him?" Azumi asked irritatedly raising an eyebrow. She didn't really like to talk about him…or think about him…or really have anything to do with him in general, actually…

"Fuji said he had cancer."

"I don't really know yet. That just seems to be the most likely explanation for his current health problems." She huffed indignantly before lying down again with her arms crossed and chin raised in defiance.

Ryoma chuckled.

"What?" Azumi demanded, even more irritated.

"One-san, Tezuka-buchou really gets on your nerves doesn't he?"

"Doesn't he get on everyone's?" she snapped back.

"Is he going to be able to play tennis?"

"Really, Ry-chan, is that all you care about?"

"…yes…"

"No, then."

"It's a no, only because I just care about him being able to play tennis?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, neither does Tezuka-san."

"Point taken."

"Of course it is, I made it."

"That would make us what, at 30-15?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's your first point, I've already gotten two on you."

"What? When?!"

"When I said you were trying for Tezuka-buchou."

"Okay, that's one, just because it's such an insult to even think about thinking about thinking about that at all…ever! What about the other point?"

"I brought another Ponta." He said as he reached his hand into his bag and pulled out another grape Ponta to replace the one that she had taken from him in an attempt to teach him a lesson.

Azumi pouted. "Fine, it's 30-15. But why do you get to serve first?" she whined, totally going with his hypothetical word tennis match.

"Because I'm not the cross-dressing trainer to the human block of stone." He replied non-chalantly as he casually sipped his Ponta.

Azumi opened her mouth to protest, but no words came. She may have been able to beat a lot of people with her fists, but when it came to arguments, she sure was losing a lot of them.

Ryoma smirked at her, "40-15."

Nishimura, Saito, and Miura (A/N: for those of you who have been faithfully reading as I unfaithfully update and may not remember these guys, they are Koga and Mochizuki's replacements) were all busy at work in the D-room, the headquarters for operation track down Azumi typing away at their computers. Nishimura was once again typing furiously as he glowered at his computer monitor. Unfortunately, no matter how furiously he continued to glare at the screen, the computer screen did not show him what he wanted to see. This was a rather unwise decision on the part of the computer screen. If it knew what it was good for it, it would have shown Nishimura what he wanted long ago which was the precise location of a black-haired, green eyed, female, annoyingly resourceful, renegade, and increasingly hard to find agent.

The screen was a map of Germany with regions highlighted red indicating where the team had already searched without success.

Just then, Asai and Tokaji walked in.

"Sectors 5,9, and 23 are all negative." Asai mumbled quietly, evident exhaustion in his voice.

Tokaji didn't even dignify to give a report and plopped down in his chair giving an indignant and rather irritated sigh.

Nishimura gave the computer a break and chose to throw a glare in the direction of Tokaji to which Tokaji merely rolled his eyes.

Turning his attention back to the computer, Nishimura highlighted three more sections of the map of Germany red. He sighed and glanced back at the screen.

The map of Germany was mainly red. The computer program was a standard one especially useful for operations that involved finding a fugitive and apprehending him/her. Once a sector was searched, the region would be highlighted so as to eliminate that area from the search.

Nishimura was fairly certain at this point that Azumi had long since left Germany, however, he had no real idea as to where she might go. Saito was running through every scrap of information he could find about Azumi, searching for clues as to where she might flee to. Miura was busy filtering through mass amounts of media, searching for any mention of suspicious activity that might point to the presence of Azumi in the region, a suspicious break-in, perhaps even a string of murders.

Asai and Tokaji had been assigned to reconnaissance as they knew Azumi's patterns the best. Nishimura had also assigned them to reconnaissance because he found them to be rather useless as of late. Tokaji had become more and more surly since the betrayal of Mochizuki and Koga, bordering on rebelling himself. With every order, Nishimura saw the glint in his eye that screamed that he was considering disobeying, and every time he saw it be repressed, for now. Asai had become more robotic and withdrawn. All the tension that had built up since the exile of Azumi was building up. He really needed to find her and soon.

(Azumi POV)

My time with Ryoma was exactly as I had remembered. He was sarcastic and seemingly uncaring but kind and amazingly sweet in the small things that he did, like how he would turn to look at me when he talked, or actually remembered to bring a Ponta for me. Totally clueless and yet totally brotherly.

He was my heartbeat. The only thing that kept me human at my stay at Imei. With my parents', for all practical purposes, abandonment, and cold instructors at Imei, it was easy to turn into a cold killer with a single purpose. Devoid of human interaction outside of the frame of being taught to kill and finding teammates to increase the ruthless efficiency of killing, real interaction with Ryoma kept me alive.

I was reluctant to leave.

But duty called. Well, friendship, decency, obligation, love, and guilt were also yelling pretty loudly too, but I figured that They would be okay with being put under the heading of duty, they all kind of mushed together. The point was, was that I had a lot of really good reasons to leave Ryoma no matter what I _wanted _to do.

Phooey.

"Ne, One-san, you should go." Ryoma said uninterestedly.

I turned to him, "How did you know I need to go somewhere?"

"Whenever you're having trouble deciding what to do, you become absolutely still." He commented as though it were the most obvious things in the world.

I always knew he would have a made a better agent than me.

I stood up and shook off the grass from my clothes and gave Ryoma a little wave.

"Mada mada dane." He said with a smirk as he continued to stare up at the night sky.

My eyebrows creased, as I frowned at him, "Remember Ryo-chan, I can still beat you up."

"Love you too, One-san." He remarked without breaking his smirk.

I glanced at my watch. 2:45. I needed to get going.

With one more gaze up at the night sky, I sprinted off into the night.

I needed to get to Imei. I had made the journey from that facility so many times that I could probably find it if I got dropped from a helicopter anywhere in Japan.

Due to this I could tell from where I stood that it was about 30 miles away as the crow flies, but there were no highways or train stations to it. The nearest highway brought me within 10 miles of it which meant at least 20 miles of running (there and back) and the return trip with a possibly injured Mochizuki and Koga. Also, I had the problem of even getting to that close point on the highway. I had no car, helicopter, airplane, motorcycle, heck even a moped would do.

I had pretty few options in general, though I had been formulating this plan for quite some time. I knew that I would have to leave from the Echizen household as I intended to see Ryoma before going anywhere.

I was going to have to "borrow" the family car.

I didn't tell Ryoma cause if he knew I was trying to take the car, he'd undoubtedly want to go along and get all stubborn, an unfortunate Echizen trait.

Plus, it was slight payback for all the "mada mada dane"s he had been throwing at me as of late. I'd say that this would at least bring up the score to 40-30.

If my family noticed, he'd be stuck in the awkward position of either taking the blame, or coming up with an excuse and probably getting blamed anyways. For some reason I was much happier than I probably should have been about this fact.

I was coming up on the Echizen residence and very quietly vaulted over the back fence landing in a soundless crouch on the grass. I moved silently to the back porch and very slowly slid the backdoor open. I crept through the dark house not needing a light, I had memorized our house with Ryoma when we were little and I was still trying to make him into a pseudo-spy. He in turn had tried to teach me the basics of tennis. Unfortunately, both enterprises were both shown to be fruitless as my visits became less and less frequent and shorter and shorter. I snatched the keys from the hook in the laundry room and crept back out the door noiselessly closing it behind me.

I snuck over to where the car was parked. We didn't have a garage so I needn't worry about that opening and waking up everyone in the house.

I opened the car door softly and put the keys into the ignition. I closed the door, buckled myself in and then just sat there for a second. I stared at the keys in the ignition, wondering if I should have felt guilty for stealing my family's car. Regardless of what they did to me, they were still family. Then, realizing my logic, I figured that no matter what _I_ did to _them_ they would still have to consider _me_ family. So ha! Take that conscience!

I started the car with a good rev of the engine and was sorely disappointed when the rev turned out to be more of a purr from a very small kitty. World-class tennis player or not, my dad really should think about investing in a nice little sports car, not this old clunky thing. I mean, I loved Lancers as much as the next guy but 1973? Even cats from that long ago were pushing up daisies and cats have 9 lives.

I slowly backed out of the driveway and arced out into the street. I didn't bother to turn on the headlights, as they would most certainly have given me away. I just hoped all that training to use night vision would pay off. I had never exactly tried using that particular skill from behind the wheel of a car. As soon as I got out of the neighborhood, I gunned the gas pedal and sped off, always going in the general direction of Imei. I tried to keep to neighborhoods, 1 because there were fewer people to notice me out and about, and 2, because there were more little roads that could keep me going in the right direction.

I estimated that I was going an average of about 65 mph considering I was taking the straights at a good 80mph and the turns around 57mph. I could have taken them much faster but considering my vision was impaired and spinning out slightly to round the corner created a loud screech of my tires, I kept my turns more mundane and rounded.

I glanced out the sunroof that peered out into the night sky. I could see that it was a moonless night. Not something that I had taken into account but certainly welcomed, it would make stealth just that much easier.

The walls of houses and windows sped by in my peripheral vision and were soon replaced by shops as I found myself forced out onto main roads. From there, the highway was preferable to anywhere where there might be a night life. As I had suspected, the highway was near vacant and it was just me, going 90mph along a stretch of concrete that I knew would lead me to Imei. I scanned the side of the road for the turnoff where I knew I would have to desert the car and continue the journey on foot.

It felt like an eternity before I finally found myself at the spot and not really caring about noise at this point, I spun the car in a 180, which caused it to slide neatly stopping about a foot short of the highway barrier. I frantically glanced down at my watch which now read 3:15. I was running out of time.

It would take me at least one hour to get there running and by then dawn would be swiftly approaching. I would not be able to make it back successfully if the sun rose before I could get the car back to the Echizen home. Not only that, but if I made it there in an hour, I would have run 10, 6 minute miles which was extraordinarily exhausting. I might have had just enough energy to retrieve Mochizuki and Koga if I ran into no resistance but on the return trip they may have to drag _me_.

I though about all of this as I sprinted through the fields that surrounded Imei. It was settled out in the country mainly to keep a low profile but also training was much easier where there was a lot of ground to train. You couldn't exactly have a race track to practice high speed chases, an airstrip, or stables in the city.

I supposed that I could steal a vehicle from Imei to make the return trip, the only problem with that was that I would have to abandon it by the highway and they would have a very large clue as to where I was. They may even have access to traffic cameras and such once they knew where on which the highway to look. I would have to pick something that could bring them on a wild goose chase or even better yet, return to Imei without me having to take it back. Anything digital was definitely out. All equipment would have GPS systems and thus their journeys will all be recorded.

I went through our list of non-digital transports and came up with a very short list.

Horses.

That might actually work…

A horse could carry more than one person and when left alone, naturally return to their stable.

I ran on with a solid escape plan ground into my head, which gave my legs strength to run harder. Sweat dripped into my eyes causing them to smart. All I had for a reprieve was the knowledge that I would not have to run back and the cool air that whipped past me. My sais were strapped to my back and by now I could definitely feel their extra weight take their toll on my legs. But I continued to run. It was the only honorable thing that I could do.

(Regular POV)

Koga sat still perched on the edge of her cot. If she had calculated correctly she had been up for 12 hours. With no windows or anything electric in her room, she didn't really know for sure. The headmaster would have been an idiot to put anything electric in her room as her comprehensive knowledge of mechanics and, to put it quite bluntly, bomb-making was enough to fill a set of encyclopedias 4 times over.

Her stomach growled. She tilted her head to look down at her very empty, very demanding stomach. She then licked her lips and also realized for not the first time that day that she was extraordinarily thirsty.

Suddenly, she jumped up to her feet and immediately reached for the nunchakus that were ordinarily present on her right and left hip. Her hand gripped empty air as she remembered that she was imprisoned, and people who were imprisoned were normally not left armed. She stayed in a defensive position regardless.

She had heard footsteps that seemed to stop at her door. From what she could tell it was about 5 men all around 180lbs. She sneered to herself. They figured she couldn't take out 5 guys. It was nothing short of an insult.

The doorknob turned slowly and a person entered with a tray of food and water. He was about 6 feet in height and had two guns holstered up by his arms. He was flanked by two more men who also boasted guns. The other two must have been flanking the doorway she figured.

_Cheaters. They brought guns…_Koga thought viciously.

Nevertheless, in a stroke of defiance, she stood up out of her crouch and looked at the men without a hint of fear, arrogance that almost issued a challenge shining in her eyes.

The men generally ignored her, however, and the one with food placed it on the nightstand before they all left just as quickly as they had come.

Koga relaxed her position and sighed turning to the food that now adorned her bedstand, tempting her.

She was sure that it was not poisoned, the death of a top team member without a fair trial would send the students into a tizzy. But drugged to get her to sleep? Highly probable.

She glared at the food, hoping that somehow her obvious disdain for it would cause it to change.

Nothing seemed to be happening.

The water that was brought however was most likely safe she decided. Firstly, it was bottled and secondly, a human could not survive long without water, especially if they were often physically active or had raging metabolisms, also known as being a teenager and they didn't want her dead for reasons that she had already stated. In fact, the fact that they had brought her bottled water verified in her mind that they wanted her alive. They had not wanted her to abstain from the water for fear of it being drugged and thus had brought in bottled water to declare its safety.

Her lips parched, she twisted the cap off, satisfied to hear the click of the seal breaking, once more signifying no foul play.

Without hesitation she raised the bottle to her lips and took a good long swig of the water. The cool liquid brought such relief to her dry mouth, but she stopped herself from drinking the whole bottle. She wanted to know that she would have some for later just in case the headmaster didn't feel so generous later.

She moved to once again perch herself on the edge of the cot and took a step forward. As she put her foot down, the room seemed to rock a bit beneath her foot. Confused, she moved her head to look down at her feet and as she moved her head, everything blurred, like her vision wasn't quite keeping up with the movement of her head.

_Oh no…_ she thought.

She grabbed for the water bottle that she had placed back on the nightstand, but as she reached for it, her disorientation made her feel sluggish and the fact that she couldn't focus properly didn't really help with that much. Her hand that had grabbed for the water bottle instead clung only at air as she fell onto the floor in a crumpled heap.

Koga slowly reached up for the bottle and managed to knock it off of the table. As she felt it again, she noticed that it was wet on one side. With shaking fingers and drooping eyes she turned it to that side and ran her fingers over its surface. She froze. Her finger had detected a hole. A hole so small that it was almost undetectable. A hole the perfect size for a needle on the end of a syringe full of drugs to pierce the plastic of the water bottle.

The bottle dropped from her fingers as her consciousness fought with all its teeth and claws bared to throw off the sleep that was threatening to take her.

She was losing.

The last thing she remembered was the soft click of her door opening again before she drifted into oblivion.

**Haha, ended with a cliffie again ;) please review! i will still write but it REALLY does motivate me to write faster. it jsut gives the warm fuzzy, someone-cares-about-me-and-my-awesome-OCs kind of feeling hehe.**


	12. Azumi's Story

**Oh. My. Gosh. It's been a year...or so...hehe, but I told you that I'd finish, so I will, actually I'm not sure if I told you that or not...but i will, not matter how long it takes. But anyways...I am SO SO SO SO SO VERY SORRY! There's no excuse...sigh. But to make up for it, there's a really really really long chapter. And the next one should be coming soon because it's Christmas break and I should have more time AND I'm actually excited about this next part :) I really was dreading writing so much description and backstory :P I just want to get to her going to school! But I forced myself through it, so for those of you who are still following this story. HERE YOU GO!**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own POT.**

(Azumi POV)

Sometimes I wish I had a soundtrack to my life, if only because I like the Mission Impossible theme song and anyone could see how that would be appropriate for 90% of my life. Currently, that statistic would hold very true as I snuck past another sentry that overlooked the racetrack and made my way to the central building at Imei.

I had extensive knowledge of the Imei security system, having had to upkeep it at times myself. The way detentions worked at our school was that you were dropped in front of a dozen computer monitors that you had to stare at…for hours…and hours…and hours. It was pure torture, first of all because it was sooooo boring. Secondly, you couldn't drop your guard for a second, which made it absolutely exhausting. Third, staring at a screen that long made my eyes hurt and start having flashbacks of watching Digimon with Ryoma until the early hours of the morning.

I gave a sigh of satisfaction as I reminisced, what a good show, erm , I mean brother.

The central building was only 50 feet away, but I was going to have to make a straight run across the courtyard, that was just wide open space. No obstacles. In spy terms, no safety. It was still dark enough that it was possible that no one would see me, but my instincts were on red alert and screamed at me not to run across. I don't know about you, but having voices scream in your head is not at all a pleasant experience. Not only that, but they're pretty hard to ignore, darned little blighters. But thankfully as a natural rebel, I had little problems shutting them up and sprinting headlong from the inner wall to a side door of the building.

After jiggling the handle slightly, I cracked the door open just slightly, and peeked in. I checked my watch. It was 4:32am, and I knew that the guards were on 5 minute touring duties. They began at the west end of the floor and worked their way to the east end in 2 and half minutes and then back to the west end, completing their 5 minute cycle. This side door was approximately one third of the way between the west end and the east end, meaning that the guards had just passed and I had around 2 minutes and 30 seconds to make it to the stairwell. Complicated, right? Just remember to pay attention when you start doing story problems in math, it comes in handy in situations like these. Because you never know when you'll have to calculate the frequency of the route of sentries in a highly classified teenage training facility. Hey, it happens a lot alright? …I saw that eyeroll…

I moved quickly, keeping low to the ground and staying mainly in crouches. I knew that it wouldn't help much, but I wanted to stay out of the eyeline just so that I might have that extra nanosecond before they recognized I was there, if I was unfortunate enough to have miscalculated. I say that it wouldn't have helped much because I was dressed in full black and the walls, floor and ceiling of Imei are stark, typical government institution white. I mean, it made sense, it made the school feel just that much more unwelcoming and also made trespassers easy to spot as they were normally dressed in full black.

Like me.

Greeeaaat.

Thankfully, though, I had no problems making my way to the stairway, and descending four levels where I knew they had the interrogation rooms. I was pretty sure that that was where Mochizuki was being kept, and if I knew Imei like I think I did (i.e. as a cold, calculated, unfeeling, monster), then I was pretty sure that Koga would be unconscious by now and probably in a holding room in the second underground floor. I would get Mochizuki first and then use his help to carry her to the stables.

The hallway of the 4th underground floor was narrow, just as I remembered it, in order to make prisoners feel more enclosed and suffocated. Imei really did think of everything to bring out the worst emotions in people. The more I looked around, the more I was disgusted to ever having been a student.

All the doors had windows and I peeked at an angle through all of them to see if they were unoccupied.

Nope, looks like a terrorist.

Oooh, a student being grilled…ouch.

Nope. Whoa, no way! The janitor from the third floor…I always knew he was trouble.

Bingo! Perfect, no one seems to be grilling him at the moment.

I cracked the door to the viewing room open just wide enough to fit and me and closed it soundlessly behind me. My hand reached for the handle to the interrogation room when I realized that I had no idea how to reintroduce myself to Mochizuki. I didn't even know _why_ he was there in the first place, or even what he had been convicted of. I had just known that some of my team were in trouble and I had instinctively rushed to help them.

But I had not even stopped to ask…did they want my help?

I mean for all intensive purposes, according to them, I had killed Tsuneo, my right hand man in cold blood and then abandoned them.

From their point of view, they probably thought that I had either lost it, or gone all renegade badass, and totally disregarded their existence.

Mochizuki was our martial artist/gunman/all manner of destructive forces. I didn't stand a chance against him, if this came down to a fight, and if he thought I was who I thought he thought I was, then I was in deep trouble.

Maybe I should have rescued Koga first…at least she would be unconscious. I didn't really feel like having to explain my life story in between Mochizuki's fury **shiver**.

All that pondering had resulted in a half second hesitation with my hand still poised to open the door. Having weighed the cost, I turned the handle.

(Regular POV)

Fuji didn't consider himself creepy, or paranoid, or any of the number of things that people often accused a distrustful person. He just knew what mankind was capable of and cared enough to protect his friends from it. Inui had turned up no results on this Jukodo Ryuu, which was suspicious in and of itself, and then something, just _some_thing about the way he looked, reminded Fuji of…himself.

And if there was one thing that Fuji knew, it was to NEVER trust someone with the same mind as him. He used his genius for tennis and the occasional payback of anyone who gave his little brother a funny look. He, of all people, knew what he was capable of. And he didn't like his other mystery self hanging around his best friend, that was for sure.

After thinking quite hard about the subject, he finally decided that the best thing to do was to interrogate this new "trainer"…Fuji style.

(Mochizuki POV)

I finally figured out how they were going to kill me.

Boredom.

It was the cruelest and probably _the_ most coldhearted execution style I had ever seen before.

Okay, so maybe I did have something to preoccupy my mind, but it sure as heck didn't help anything. It most definitely made everything about that much worse.

Koga.

She was on my mind, and not just because she was trapped somewhere in this cursed building, probably dying slowly of boredom too.

We'd always had this unspoken, bantering, flirtatious thing that went on between us. I would call her stupid and she'd call me an idiot and that was that, right?

But if that was all there was, then why couldn't I stop thinking about her?

What an awful, cruel form of torture…teenage angst. This was just below the belt.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the handle of the door start to turn and then stop. Hmm, a hesitation, ha! Maybe I scared off that stupid psychiatrist after all hehehe.

The handle then turned fully and the last person I ever expected to see, appeared from behind it.

Azumi.

The person who was the best leader, and the greatest betrayer of my teenage life. Of course, Koga and I always kept faith in her, but that didn't mean that she didn't have a lot of explaining to do.

She looked serious and didn't come fully into the room, probably because of the cameras, but made a series of hand motions for me to follow her.

It took me one moment to weigh my possibilities of: staying in this room, musing more about why Koga bothered me so much, or follow a possible traitor/murderer out the door.

Naturally, I chose the latter and followed her out of the room.

(Azumi POV)

I peeked out from behind the door, and signaled for Mochizuki to follow me. I didn't dare speak, as interrogation rooms are most definitely the places with the most surveillance in the whole of Imei high.

His facial expression went from one of frustration until he caught sight of me, which went from surprise, to relief, to suspicion all at once. Nevertheless, he followed me out, which more or less I took to be a good sign. If I got the ball rolling on this whole escape thing, then I was pretty sure that Mochizuki valued getting out of Imei more than an immediate explanation.

We met each other's eyes, when he came out and had a very short eye conversation that went something like:

"You'd better know what you're doing"

"Trust me, Mochizuki. I'll explain later, I promise."

"Damn straight! Where's Koga?"

"Follow me."

And with that out of the way, I once again punched in stealth mode, with Mochizuki close on my heels. It felt so good again, to lead even a part of my team. To be part of something so fluid and not need words. We were so used to each other that he could complement my movements exactly to both enhance stealth and cover my back.

We made our way without event to the second basal floor where prisoners were kept. It looked like an exact replica of one of our dorm floors, which was probably done on purpose to first put us off our guard, as this was our normal home, and also to confuse anyone not familiar with the building layout.

Unfortunately, now it was guess and check time. I had no idea which of the rooms Koga was being kept in, and I could feel Mochizuki sense my hesitation.

One thing that I knew was that Koga's room would be totally silent, as she would be trying to conserve energy, or she could already be drugged to be asleep. Either way, her room would seem unoccupied. That eliminated several of the rooms as I could tell that the prisoners being held in them were either holding a rave, going mad, or were watching a very loud horror film. I could guess which one it really was, but decided not to think about it.

Mochizuki, was cocking his ear, as though he could actually hear something that would tell him where Koga was. He looked kind of silly actually…but we needed to hurry.

Suddenly, we heard a soft thud, like someone had fallen but semi-caught their fall. Mochizuki, moved like lightning to the door of where it came from and after working some of the fastest lock-pick magic I had ever seen, cracked the door open.

I motioned for him to stop, thinking that it couldn't be Koga, but didn't want to speak and give away our position. That was the problem with motions. They were easier to ignore. But before I could stop him I caught a glimpse of the room in front of him.

Laying on the ground, hand outstretched towards a leaking water bottle, was Koga.

I glanced over to Mochizuki, whose face contorted once again with amazing speed from surprise, to relief, to utter horror.

I moved to pick Koga up and motioned for him to take her other side, but he just stood there frozen.

Whoa.

Halt. Stop. Rewind.

What? First of all, Mochizuki was one of the MOST fidgety kids that I had ever met. Second, we were trained from the age of 1 to have nothing shock us. Were this a real mission, WHICH I WANTED TO REMIND MOCHIZUKI THAT IT WAS AND TIME WAS OF THE ESSENCE, a freeze would mean letting down the entire team and perhaps jeopardizing everyone's lives.

For him to stand frozen like that, I didn't understand.

And then it hit me, he didn't know that Imei would try to knock her unconscious. As team leader, I was privy to all our team's weaknesses, even the ones that they kept most sacred and guarded. Mochizuki wouldn't know about Koga's weakness to tell the truth in her sleep. He must think that they'd poisoned her. That would explain the horror and fury gathering behind his eyes. But we had to keep moving.

I made a motion, like what-are-you-doing-standing-there-she's-really-heavy-HELP-ME! (and yes, there is a universal hand motion for that). Okay, so maybe I just gave him an exasperated expression and shifted Koga's weight, but he got the hint and came to her other side, still with a steely glint and fury raging behind his eyes.

We moved as quietly as we could, making sure to avoid cameras and patrols, and as we walked, I tried to tilt Koga's face toward Mochizuki so that he could feel that she was breathing normally. Though, it was quite difficult considering he was 6-foot and I was somewhere around….sigh 5 foot 6, which made carrying Koga more than a little lopsided. After we came outside, I could tell that he was much more relaxed, then he had been, though concern and anger still shown through.

Checking my watch, I saw that it was 4:45am and it was beginning to become light. This would make crossing the courtyard tricky, particularly with an unconscious person. I communicated to Mochizuki to take Koga piggyback style and we would sprint across the courtyard one at a time, which was much less conspicuous. It would be harder on Mochizuki, but it would be faster and we were almost to the horse stables.

He took her, treating her very delicately, almost as though…

Hmmm, another thought for another time. A prison break was not exactly the time to be thinking about possible romantic entanglements. Speaking of romantic entanglements, I wondered why Ryoma keeps teasing me about Tezuka…I mean he is insufferable, and I didn't really want him much as a friend, much less boyfriend. Ugh, my body gave an involuntary shiver at the term.

I snapped back to reality and realized that Mochizuki had already made his way across the courtyard and had been signaling me for quite some time…oops, my bad ehehe.

We made it safely to the horse stables and I chose my favorite, Shadowfax. Okay, so his name was really 148HFB, which was branded on his left flank, but I called him Shadowfax, because in my estimations, a horse named that should be black, not white, regardless of what J.R.R. Tolkien thinks.

I mounted, pulled Koga up as Mochizuki lifted her from below, and then settled in behind her.

I gave Shadowfax, a good squeeze between my knees and he bolted forward, leaving Imei behind in the dust.

(Koga POV)

I was having a wonderful dream, where my old team was all back together and instead of going on a mission, we got sent on a cruise where we could just relax. Such a foreign concept to all of us. But take a breather, just for the sake of bonding, and having fun. Actually watching a movie, instead of briefings or lectures tat talked about pop culture like a subject instead of an experience, or going through the day without a near death experience.

I was just at the part of my dream where we were playing in the pool on the deck when suddenly a storm broke out and the ship began rocking. Thunder, that sounded strangely like galloping, rumbled in the distance, but as I tried to shut my eyes and run away from it all, the louder the pounding continued.

As I became more aware, I could feel the jaunt of definitely a horse, and arms tightly wrapped around my waist.

Where am I?

What was the last thing I remembered before drifting off to sleep…

Oh yeah! I was at Imei and had just been drugged via a very deceiving looking water bottle!

The question still remained of, where am I now?

I opened my eyes slightly and looked around, a figure in black was in front of me, of whom I couldn't quite make out the face. I turned around just enough to see Mochizuki, with a determined and a strange emotion that I hadn't seen in him before, rage. Even though his face was close to mine, his mind seemed far away.

Then he noticed that I was awake and his expression softened, breaking into a smile, filled with relief it looked like. I felt a squeeze from behind from his arms that were keeping me from falling off of the horse. I was never that great with animals, machines I understand. People and animals…not so much.

I gave him a quizzical expression and gestured with my head to the rider in front of me, with which he replied a mischievous smile and a glint that said wait-and-see.

I shot him a frown and stuck my tongue out at him. If I had wanted to "wait-and-see", I wouldn't have asked…stupid Mochizuki.

He just proceeded to smile ever so irritatingly and changed his gaze to look ahead.

I followed his gaze to see that we were rapidly approaching the highway where a parked car was waiting for us.

Awesome. I could not wait to get off this wretched horse.

(Mochizuki POV)

Koga was fine! Yaaaaaayyyy!

Um, cough, I mean um…yay. I guess.

Shadowfax came to a halt at the guardrail between us and the car.

Azumi swiftly dismounted, as did I, and then helped Koga down. Azumi gave Shadowfax a hug around the neck and then a resounding slap on the rump which sent him running back home to his stables at Imei.

Come to think of it, that was actually pretty ingenious, using a horse to get back.

Not that I'd ever tell her that she actually came up with a good idea.

Azumi ran to the car, started the engine and I raced to take the passenger seat, but Koga beat me to it. Erm, I mean, I graciously allowed Koga to take the front seat, purposefully taking the backseat. Yeah, that's what happened.

I had almost buckled my seatbelt when I was flung forward, sideways, and almost out the window in less time than I had to process…

Ugh, I forgot about Azumi's driving.

Efficient, but deadly, that's what I'd call it. She nearly flunked the test at Imei for pursuit driving by almost breaking the windshield with the instructor's body as she accelerated "just a little too fast" as she put it. But she also completed it safely and in the shortest amount of time in Imei history, so she passed with an A-. She wasn't happy, but she didn't get to complain to the instructor because he quit and changed professions.

I really missed her.

But now was not the time to get all nostalgic, she owed us some answers and I could tell that I was going to have to do all the talking because Koga was too busy sputtering at realizing it was Azumi to say anything coherent.

Interrogation time.

(Azumi POV)

31…32…33…34…35…36…37 seconds was the amount of time that it took Koga to come out of shock when she caught a look at my face from the passenger seat.

"Azu-a-a-zum-az-a…"

And no came the sputtering. Sigh, I sure seem to be getting that a lot.

But I didn't mind because we were now racing away from Imei at 70mph, having made a clean getaway, so I was happy.

"Start."

I glanced back to see Mochizuki with crossed arms, laid back in the seat, with an expression that said "impress me".

"Okay, but first, Koga-san, will you stop stuttering…PLEASE. It's really me." I ended with a smile in her direction. I really _was_ glad to see them both.

She stopped mid stutter at my smile and then her expression changed to a huge smile.

"AZUMI-CHAN!" she shouted almost throwing me into a hug, but then realized I was driving so stopped mid-air and retracted her arms. But the smile stayed, which made me glad.

"Yes. Explanation. Now."

It would seem that Mochizuki was all business. Well that was fair. I sighed before I began.

"Okay, first, exactly how much do you guys know? I'll fill in the rest."

Koga leaned forward. "We were told that you killed Tsuneo-senpai, and then that you fled Imei control. We really couldn't ask any questions. They were really that vague to us."

"I guessed as much, but if that's true, then why didn't you guys kill me on sight?"

Mochizuki's expression had not changed at all since he demanded I start. " We're asking the questions right now, who knows, we still might, you might get your questions answered if I like yours."

Koga looked back at him in shock and slightly disapproving. "What are you doing?" She whispered violently.

"Don't worry about it Koga-san," I saw her flinch at the change in honorific, but I didn't want to assume too close a friendship until I had explained or else I felt that Mochizuki would officially lose it. "I kind of deserve it."

Mochizuki gave me another eye message that said "Damn straight you do."

"When we were on the Kenya mission, you remember our instructions were to assassinate the drug lord who had been importing opium into Japan in hopes that he would be able to replicate an Asian opium war much like the one that destroyed China in the mid-19th century. When Tsuneo tried to get close by befriending his son, what you guys didn't know is that, he actually had a genuine friendship with him, his name was Akili. When we went in to take out the drug lord, Tsuneo and I agreed that he would save Akili before we blew his whole house. I should have told you guys, but I didn't think that it would put any hitch in our operation, and I wasn't sure how Nishimura-san would approve of it and I didn't want it reported to the headmaster. You both know how he feels about…things…like that."

I winced and Koga and Mochizuki nodded solemnly with knowing expressions.

"Anyways, we had a special channel on our earpieces and he was supposed to contact me when he had cleared the building with Akili. I didn't hear anything, and 5 minutes before we were set to detonate, I went in to see what was going on. I went into Akili's room to see Akili standing next to our headmaster with Tsuneo unconscious on the floor. I was so confused, so when he asked for my earpiece, I gave it to him. I thought that he was going to help Tsueno, or call for help to another team or something. I thought too well of his intentions." I said with a frown.

"But he took it and crushed it under his foot and then explained that this entire operation had been a test. A setup. Akili was an agent from the Kenyan embassy, and had been instructed to try and bate Tsuneo. Tsuneo had," I hesitated before spitting the next word, "_failed_, in that he had become too close to the enemy and then the headmaster offered me a choice. In his estimations, I had failed his little test too because I came back for Tsuneo, but I could turn around and walk out the door and order you guys to blow the building with Tsuneo in it and he would forget that I went back for him."

I stopped, I had try to suppress it all, all of the anger, and bitterness and hurt came welling back up. I didn't turn to look at Koga, who I could hear was already tearing up.

"I chose to fight him instead. He wasn't expecting it, so I was able to get the upper hand, but then he pulled out a knife and-"

I had to stop again. _I _was starting to tear up. Not good, but I couldn't abort now, Mochizuki and Koga deserved to know.

"As-as we were fighting…" I took a breath, "we came closer to Tsuneo, and the headmaster, h-he, he stabbed him." I said evenly, finally being able to control my voice.

" Right in front of me. I tried to stop him from doing it again, and save Tsuneo, but then Akili got a hold of me. I asked the headmaster why, and he said it was because I was too weak to do it. And then-" I sighed. "then, the next thing I remembered, I was laying outside the building, waking up to the sound of an explosion. The building. That's when I regrouped with you guys, but I was so shocked and needed time to process everything, so I didn't say anything. The next day, we flew back to Imei and the headmaster called me in and basically said that because I was too weak, he was going to have to end me too. So I left. And that breaks us pretty much up to today."

We had been sitting in the Echizen driveway for a good 10 minutes as I told the story just because it didn't seem right to get out in the middle, and we had arrived quite some time ago.

Neither Koga or Mochizuki made any move to get out. Koga, was looking very somber, and was no longer tearing. Mochizuki's look of skepticism had left him and his face remained blank as he seemed to try to be processing it all.

"Why didn't you tell us. Why. Why! We would have believed you, you know that! What kept you from telling us, really? All this time, we've doubted and it hurt Azumi, it HURT! And we could have been spared all that. Why didn't you trust us?" Mochizuki was really working himself up. I'd never seen him like this before, but something told me that he was more angry that, in a roundabout way I had put Koga in danger, and maybe just a little that I had actually betrayed them.

I remained blank and gave Koga a quick glance before saying, "I have my reasons."

Mochizuki finally made a move to get out of the car, "This is bullsh-"

"I know why." Koga said in a small voice.

Mochizuki stopped his move to leave, and gave her a quizzical expression. "What?"

"You don't have to tell him Koga-san." I said softly and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She gave me a little smile. "Yes I do, it's Mochizuki-chan after all, and if you don't mind Azumi-chan, it's –chan, not –san."

"Oh my gosh, is this girl stuff?" Mochizuki asked half-seriously.

We both laughed.

"No," replied Koga with a smile, "but it is kind of sensitive." Her smile dropped and Mochizuki's jovial attitude did as well.

"You know, our greatest weaknesses thing we get assessed for at Imei?" Mochizuki nodded. "Well, most people have stuff like, afraid of heights, or slower reactions then most, or allergic to bees. Mine…is a little bit more serious. I-I-I, I kind of can't keep a secret. Ever. The moment I fall asleep, I'll divulge anything that I know. In other words, if Azumi had told me all that had happened that night then-"

"Then the headmaster would have taken our whole team out. Because he would know that we knew and any chance of rebellion or secrecy would be lost." Finished Mochizuki.

"Yeah…" said Koga, putting her eyes down, ashamed.

"And if she had told all of us but you without telling us your weakness, then we would have been suspicious of both how true her story was and how loyal _you_ were to the team." Mused Mochizuki, coming to the full realization.

"Yeah…" Koga looked as if she were about to cry.

"It's not your fault Koga, you can't help it." I tried to reassure her.

"That makes it worse." Koga said, looking at me sadly.

Mochizuki was silent for a while as we all just sat in the car before he broke the silence saying, "Does that mean that I can ask you if my jokes are funny when you're asleep?"

I laughed. Koga looked appalled.

"No! Absolutely not! But it doesn't matter, I honestly think your jokes are terr-i-ble."

"We'll see about that hehehe"

"Ugh, I knew we shouldn't have told him…"

"This is going to be soooo much fun!"

"Azumi-chan, help me!"

Boy, how I missed my team.

I glanced out the window just in time to see my mom walk out onto the porch to get the paper, when she glanced up and saw that there were indeed people in her car.

I rolled down the window.

"Okaa-san! Umm…I'm home. Surprise?"

(Guard POV)

Just a normal day right? I went to bring a prisoner some food around 6am, some girl named Koga, and okay so maybe I pick off some of the food off the plate before it gets to the room, but they're prisoner's right? They don't deserve anything. Any food at all is a bonus.

Anyways, I went down to see if she was there only to see the door open, which I reported of course, and that she was missing. Not my fault…

It's not like _I_ was on duty at the time. But no, I'm all in hot water now about apparently _two_ missing prisoners who I've never even seen and every guard who was on duty all night has been summoned back for questioning. Apparently these prisoners were a pretty big deal.

Not only that, but there was something else…something about how they think a renegade freed them? What was her name…uh, Azula? No, Az-, Az-, Az-something…um…um, oh yeah Azumi.

(Unknown POV)

"Mmhmm, yes, okay, uh-huh, I understand."

I hung up the phone.

It looked as though Mochizuki and Koga were safe. Well that was a load off of my mind. But, they're not sure by who's hand they escaped. I just have to hope that they don't make the connection lead back to Azumi. I think it's time for some more sabotage…

(Ryoma POV)

I don't like guests. They make Karupin all edgy. Or, if you're Ryuzaki, they make Karupin ignore me. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation.

Somehow my inane sister convinced Obaa-san and Okaa-san to adopt two strays from her secret agent school.

Mada mada dane.

I think they're going to school tomorrow too. Things are getting really interesting in this house. It'll probably get in the way of tennis. Tch.

(Azumi POV)

I returned to Tezuka's house by 7am, which I knew was much too late. I would have to have some excuse. I walked onto the porch and peaked over the windowsill into our…ugh, I hate the sound of that, um yeah, no way around it, our room to see if Tezuka was in there. He wasn't, so I climbed back into the room and French-braided my hair like a mad woman, pinned them back to my head, threw my wig on, put on the eyebrow and side-burn attachments and wrapped my chest.

I then, froze as I heard voices approach the room.

"Is he still sleeping?" I heard a feminine voice chime.

"I don't know." Came the ever-familiar solemn voice of Tezuka. "I haven't checked."

Score! So I could pretend to just be a slob who sleeps in too late. Wait…that doesn't sound as good as I thought it would.

"It's just about time for school and I made breakfast. You should get him up so he can start his first day off right." She continued cheerfully.

"Sa."

I quickly snuggled under the covers and did my best sleeping impression, which after years of practice, was actually quite good.

I heard soft padding into the room until they stopped at the screen.

"Jukodo-senpai, it's time for school." He said evenly.

Wow. He really thought that _that_ pathetic attempt would wake me up. Now, I had to decide whether to play along and pretend that that had actually worked, or be realistic.

Eh, he can't be _that_ perceptive, I'll just go along with it.

I opened my eyes slowly and feebly asked, "What time is it?"

"7:05."

"WHAT!" I pretended to be astonished and then ran around the house "getting ready".

I appeared in the kitchen, dressed in uniform, and spick and span.

"Good morning." I smiled cordially.

"Goodmorning." Tezuka's grandmother responded warmly. "I made breakfast, but I'm not sure if there's time."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I overslept," I said with actual remorse. It smelled gooood. "I'll be sure to wake up earlier tomorrow."

And with that Tezuka and I headed out the door to my next mission, something that I knew a lot and nothing about at the same time.

School.

**There you go! Please review! Make suggestions, the plot is still relatively fluid, so if you make a suggestion then I might work it in :)**


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